^THE 



ii'liwi'^' 



SPIRIT 



THE ORIERr 





GEORGE 

WIliJAM 

KNOX 




Class X}^^^I6- 

Book : -jX^ — 



CopiglitN^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



C|)e S>ptttt of tlje 
£)rtettt 




Cbornas p. CtotocH & Co, 
Jl3eto Poth 



Copyright, 1905, by The Chautauqua Press 

Copyright, 1906, by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 

Published September, 1906 



LIIRARY of CONGRESS 
Twt Co»iH Rw«ive< 

SEP 28 (906 

CLASS A )(KC., Nn. 



A, 



Composition and electrotype plates by 
D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston 



ContentjS 



Introductory 

Page 

America and the East ix 



The American Point of View 

Likeness of the East and West in the needs of their common 
humanity. Heredity not the explanation of our di£ferences.Ways 
in which we are indebted to the Orient. Period of separation of 
the East from the West. Acquaintance of the East a-nd West 
before separation. Opening of the history of India in our times. 
Variety of races in the East as great as in the West. Parts of 
the East to which the present study is restricted. Respects in 
which the Occident is one in religion. Unity of the West in 
its literature, law, art and science. Social conditions promot- 
ing this unity. Great common feature in the Eastern civiliza- 
tions. Buddhism a bond of union between them. Reasons why it 
is less influential than Christianity has been in the West. Idea 
of "personality" as held in the West quite absent from the 
East. The difference accounted for. By this influence the East 
has been made lacking in historic interest. Effect upon the 
masses of the people. The Spirit of the East as expressed by its 
great men. 

II 

The Asiatic Point of View 

General impression of the East upon the traveller. The Orien- 
tal's answer in general to our criticism of his forlorn surround- 
ings. The Oriental's reason for detesting the West. The Orien- 
tals' comparison of our learning with theirs. Causes for their 
considering our superiority as physical and material Contrast 
of their spirit of meditation with ours of restless energy. Their 
devotion to the ways of their fathers a hindrance to progress. 
Benefits given by England to India and the attitude of the peo- 
ple toward them. Difference between Japan's attitude toward 
the West and that of China and India. 



Ill 



Contents 



III Page 

India, its People and Customs 73 

The great g/eographical divisions of India. The coming of the 
Mongolians to India, and their place of settlement. Character- 
istics of the Aryans. Place of their establishment. Destiny of the 
races displaced by the Aryans. The coming of the Mohamme- 
dans. Other races in addition to the above. Physical features of 
India. Their eflFect upon the population. Efforts of the govern- 
ment to improve conditions. Some of the chief occupations in 
India. Extent of illiteracy. The part of ornament in the life of 
the people. The " simple life " illustrated. Marriage and other 
customs as causes of disastrous financial troubles. Relation of 
the Brahmans to other Hindus. Place held by the Mohammedan 
faith. Variety of languages existing in India. Influence of the 
caste system upon Indian social life. 

IV 
India, its Spirit and Problems 109 

Difficulty of describing the religious life of India. Some of the 
superstitions current among the people. Varieties in gods and 
religious rites. Content of the term Hinduism. The religion of 
India in its highest development. Conversation between a Chris- 
tian Brahman and a Hindu in regard to God. Varied forms in 
which Buddha is believed to have lived. The Indian's delight in 
extravagances as illustrated by his measure of time. Hindu's 
conception of karma. Effects of climate and habits of thought 
upon the life of the people. Ways of improving the physical 
well-being of the people. The burdensome expense of maintain- 
ing the British population. Moral effect upon the native of this 
foreign occupation. Degree of India's self-government. Possible 
accomplishments of education. The part of Christianity in solv- 
ing India's problems. 

V 
China, its People and Customs 147 

Geographical description. Difference from India as regards for- 
eign conquests. Strong race pride. The time when China led the 
world in her achievements. Collections of records available to 
the Chinese scholar. Surface characteristics of a Chinese vil- 

iv 



Contents 



Page 

lage. Chinese contrasted with the Indians as to variety of race 
and religion and caste distinctions. The foreigner's difficulty in 
knowing the Chinese. Respect for learning. IneflFective method 
of study. The foreigner a barbarian from the Chinese point of 
view. Foreign judgments of China seldom of value. Etiquette as 
a barrier to foreign intercourse. Its intricacy illustrated. The 
Hindu and Chinese conceptions of our ideals. Chinese attitude 
toward war. Evidences of the industry of the Chinese. China's 
claims upon our respect. 

VI 

China, its Spirit and Problems i8i 

The family as the unit. Extinction of the family a calamity. The 
Chinaman not naturaUy an emigrant. Government of villages. 
Lack of patriotism. Limitations of the power of the emperor. 
Departments of the government. Prevalence of "graft." Social 
morality compared with that of Europe. Monotony of Chinese 
Ufe. Lack of "nerves" illustrated. Disregard of life contrasted 
with care of the dead. Present condition of Buddhism in China. 
Chief teachings of Confucianism. The spirit of India and of China 
contrasted in the nature of their religions. Problems presented 
by the poverty of China. Insufficiency of the Confucian code for 
the present nation. Necessity of slow progress in China. 

VII 

Japan, its People and Customs 217 

Japan compared with other countries in length, area and popu- 
lation. Physical character. Origin of the Japanese. Changes 
brought to Japan by Buddhism. Buddhism and the earlier reli- 
gion of Japan. Its unfavorable influence. Its neutralization by 
Confucianism.The civilization of Japan as an Asiatic type. Over- 
coming of the spirit of luxury. A social organization like that of 
feudal Europe. The development of a different spirit from that 
of India or China. PrivUeges and limitations of the Japanese 
farmer. The story of the farmer who sacrificed himself for his 
fellows. Hardships and pleasures of the peasant. Young farmers 
become cooUes. Japan Ukened to Italy. Dishonesty of commer- 
cial life. Peculiar features of domestic service. Elements of kin- 
ship between nature and man in Japan. 



Contemg 



VIII Page 

Japan, its Spirit and Problems 251 

Criticism made of Japan twenty years ago. Study of the West. 
Contrast presented by Japanese to China and India. Influence 
of the men of rank in bringing about the changes. Development 
of the spirit of national loyalty. The story of the " Forty-seven 
Ronins " as an illustration. The new position of the emperor as 
embodying the national spirit. The general form of governmen- 
tal organization. Power of the Satsuma and Choshu clans. Po- 
litical danger in the influence of the Imperial Diet. Dangers of 
the new commercial development. Handicap of education. Great 
moral questions confronting Japan. Kind of ethical ideal needed 
by the people. 

IX 

The New World 283 

Significance of the victory of Japan over Russia. India and China 
not a "yellow peril." Japan unlikely to go to war again. East 
and West compared. The two forces that gave power to the 
West. Two reasons why liberty is essential to progress. Japan's 
sacrifice to secure liberty and truth. Influence of the Russo- 
Japanese War upon India and China. Doctrine of "Asia for 
the Asiatics " important for the world. Gifts which the Spirit of 
the East may have for the West. 

Bibliography 3x1 



mt of %mmati(m$ 



Page 
A Chinese Family Frontispiece 

The Great Mosque at Delhi, India Fadng 14 

Seth's Temple, Brindaban, India 28 

Mohammedan Mosque, near Bidar, Dec- 
can, India 60 

Tank and Northern Gopuram, Chidamba- 
ram, India 76 

Babatul Temple, Umritsar, India 90 

The Kutub Minar, Delhi, India 104 

Hindu Funeral Pyres at the Ganges River, 
Benares, India 122 

The Towers of Silence, Bombay, where the 
Parsee dead are exposed 136 

Avery old Chinese University where many 
famous scholars have studied 148 

Temple of Heaven, Peking, where the Em- 
peror worships 158 

Rice Terraces, China 172 

A Mixed Court, Chinese and European, at 
Shanghai 184 

A Chinese Funeral Procession 194 



!Li0tof3[Ilu0tration0 



A Cemetery near Foochow, showing 
Omega-shaped graves 206 

A Coast Scene, Japan 218 

Japanese Bhuddist Priests, begging 224 

Canal in Tokyo 230 

Capitol of the Hokkaido, at Sapporo, 
North Japan 234 / 

Japanese Farmers 240 J 

Peculiar Effect of the Earthquake, Oc- 
tober 28, 1891 246 

Wreck of Cotton Factory, Nagoya, Japan, 
by the Earthquake of 1891 250 

Native Method of spinning Cotton, Japan 254 

Geishas dancing at a Shinto Religious 
Festival 260 

Theatrical Performance at a Shinto Reli- 
gious Festival 268 

Japanese Pupils 274 

Japanese Women dressing the hair 282 

A General Store in Japan 290 

A Street in Nagasaki 298 

Gateway to the Palace of the Prince,Tokyo 306 



gintronuaori? 
amema anti ti^e €m 




I HE EVENTS of the last 
ten years have aroused the 
American people to a new 
interest in the affairs of the 
Far East. The United States has be- 
come a "world power" in a new sense, 
and its people know that they cannot 
longer isolate themselves. Whatever 
maybe our judgment as to the wisdom 
of the course pursued, we must accept 
accomplished facts. Not only have 
we the great Pacific seaboard, which 
alone would make Asia of prime impor- 
tance to us, but we have acquired the 
Sandwich Islands and the Philippine 
Archipelago. Thus we seem to have 
penetrated the Orient and to have 
numbered ourselves among its peo- 
ples, so that the coming decades are 
certain to be filled with questions of the 
highest and most lasting importance 



IX 



31nttoDuftotp 



to us and to our Asiatic neighbors. 
Politics, commerce, science, religion, 
art, literature, social customs, the eco- 
nomic situation, are all to be pro- 
foundly affected. Doubtless within a 
century our Asiatic relations will be at 
least as great as our interests in the 
lands across the Atlantic. 

Already we face a situation of world- 
wide importance, for we are attempt- 
ing a new experiment. European pow- 
ers have established empires in the 
East repeatedly, ruling over vast po- 
pulations by force. Some of these em- 
pires have been benevolent and some 
have been greedy and unscrupulous, 
but in all alike the fundamental prin- 
ciple has been government by a su- 
perior race through force. 

In our Asiatic possessions we are 
adopting a different course, as the 
principles of the American nation are 
government by the people and for the 
people. We proclaim these principles 
in our dependencies, and we are at- 



ametica anD tfie (!Ea0t 



tempting to introduce universal educa- 
tion in preparation for their practical 
application. On every side we are told 
by experienced observers that this 
is an impossibility, for the people of 
the East must be governed, they can- 
not rule themselves, and that we are 
trying to graft our ideas upon a stock 
which cannot receive them. If this be 
so, not only will our present experi- 
ment be a failure, but our own politi- 
cal principles must be modified. In- 
stead of asserting that government is 
of the people, by the people and for 
the people, we shall be obliged to add 
when the people are of Anglo-Saxon 
descent. At present, however, we are 
not convinced by the testimony of 
these experienced observers, but we 
are determined to persevere in our 
experiment. 

This instance is brought forward 
merely as an illustration, one out of a 
long line of instances that might be 
adduced, showing how grave are the 



SlntroDuftotp 



problems before us. In the past we 
have boldly and crudely attacked our 
difficulties as they have presented 
themselves, with a strong confidence 
in the intellectual vigor and moral in- 
tegrity of the people. This confidence 
on the whole has been justified, for our 
national problems have involved fac- 
tors with which we were at least mea- 
surably acquainted. The new situa- 
tion, however, demands the educat- 
ing and informing of the people, for 
the problems to be solved include un- 
known factors. Nor can we pride our- 
selves upon our success in dealing with 
Eastern Asia hitherto, though only re- 
latively simple questions have pre- 
sented themselves. 
It is true that our diplomatic history 
in the Far East has not been stained 
by such records as have disgraced the 
European powers. The story of diplo- 
macy in China, with the wars which 
have grown out of it, is one which we 
can read only with profound shame, 
xii 



ametica anD tfte Cast 



As has been repeatedly pointed out, 
it has been the papers of the Chinese 
diplomats which have read like the 
statements of a Christian power, 
whereas the papers of Great Britain, 
France and Germany have ignored 
not only the teachings of Christ but 
the fundamental principles of interna- 
tional morality. No pretext has been 
too insignificant or too immoral to be 
made an occasion for aggression. The 
United States has not thus been in- 
volved in a tortuous, immoral and ag- 
gressive diplomacy, but it has none 
the less profited by all that has been 
extorted, and time and again its moral 
support has been given to the cause 
of the stronger. It has not been, one 
fears, our superior morality but the 
less pressing nature of our interests 
which has made us more reasonable, 
and, shall I add, more Christian. 
For when our interests have been 
directly concerned, we have been not 
less open to charges of political im- 

xiii 



3[nttoDuaotp 



morality. We accepted an admission 
to China which was forced. We initi- 
ated diplomatic action leading China 
to seek admission to the sisterhood of 
nations. We framed treaties for an 
equality of rights on both sides, then 
shamelessly we violated our own treat- 
ies by act of Congress, and passed acts 
concerning the exclusion of the Chi- 
nese which remain our lasting dis- 
grace. It is not argued here that Chi- 
nese coolies should not have been 
excluded, but it is merely pointed out 
that our Congress, under threat of los- 
ing the labor vote, passed laws of 
exclusion which violated our sacred 
treaties. It is also a matter of fact that 
the same substantial result could have 
been attained by consultation with the 
Chinese government and through a 
modification of the treaties. Our course 
in this matter was thus not only shame- 
less but needless. 

It is not fair to overlook extenuating 
circumstances. Neither the people of 
xiv 



ametica anD tfte (Bast 



Great Britain nor the people of the 
United States desired to do an injus- 
tice to the Chinese, but certain inter- 
ests, in England those of trade, in 
America those of labor, were threat- 
ened, and the people in general were 
ignorant and therefore indifferent. 
This again is brought forward merely 
as an illustration of the kind of pro- 
blem which awaits solution in the fu- 
ture. Since government is not only for 
the people but by the people, ignorance 
and indifference cannot be pleaded as 
valid excuses. As the statesman must 
know the problems before the govern- 
ment, as the manager of great busi- 
ness interests must know the condi- 
tions of his trade, so the American 
people must understand the problems 
with which they have to deal. 
Probably in no other field have such 
efforts been put forth for the under- 
standing of Oriental peoples as in that 
of religion. Missionaries have made 
the East their adopted home and they 

XV 



31ntroiiuftorp 



have tried sympathetically to under- 
stand their neighbors. Such an under- 
standing is indeed of even greater im- 
portance to the missionary than to the 
diplomat or the merchant. He must 
know and respect the peoples to whom 
he is to reveal his higher truth. But 
our new relations to the Orient have 
led to a twofold criticism of the possi- 
bility of missionary success. On the 
one hand, certain critics tell us that 
the "natives" are too debased for ex- 
alted Christian truth, and that the 
Asiatic cannot change his nature more 
readily than can the leopard his spots. 
All converts, we are assured, are hypo- 
crites who desire worldly gain. On the 
other hand, other critics are telling us 
that the Asiatics already have reli- 
gions of such exalted types and ethics 
so pure that they do not need our 
teaching in either field. Hence, accord- 
ing to these writers, it is an imperti- 
nence for us to carry our religion to 
Asia. Manifestly we must see with our 
xvi 



ametica and tbt €a0t 



own eyes and understand for our- 
selves, when such opposed views can 
be given. The religious world, there- 
fore, no less than the political and 
commercial, is interested in a com- 
pleter understanding of the Far East. 
This little volume is an attempt to- 
ward such an understanding. No ob- 
server can do more than report what 
appears to him. No student can mas- 
ter so vast a subject in all its complex- 
ities. It is only by the cooperation of 
many that we may hope to come to 
understand in a measure our topic, and 
it is necessary to this end that each 
writer should 

"... draw the thing as he sees it 
For the God of things as they are." 



Reprinted by permission from "The Chautauquan' 
for September, October and November, 1905 



I 

Cfte ametican point of l^ieto 



Cl^e awetfcan ^ofnt of a^(etp 




|H East is East, and West is West, 
and never the twain shall meet 

I Till Earth and Sky stand presently 
at God's great Judgment Seat." 

Mr. Kipling thus vigorously expresses 
the common opinion. Something sep- 
arates the Oriental from the Occi- 
dental. It is not merely that our fash- 
ions are different, the clothes we wear, 
the houses we dwell in, the food we 
eat, our ways of play as our methods 
of work, but that there is a deeper 
separation in life and spirit. How sel- 
dom do we understand each other, or 
either Oriental or Occidental interpret 
aright the Ufe of the other. A professor 
in the government college in Luck- 
now, who had spent years in India 
and who spoke the vernacular, once 
said to me, "None of us know these 
people. We do not understand their 
purposes nor their feelings. Before the 

3 



Cfte ©pint of tbe ©riem 



mutiny the residents supposed they 
understood them, and they trusted the 
people as they trusted themselves, 
and then suddenly, without warning, 
came the explosion. So now we do 
not profess to know, but we feel as if 
living on the thin crust of a volcano." 
I went out to the cantonments to ser- 
vice on Sunday and the splendid Brit- 
ish regiments came to chapel fully 
armed, bringing their loaded guns 
into the building. For in the mutiny 
some troops were caught in church 
unarmed, and since that time no risks 
are taken. 

This is the repulsive side of the con- 
trast, but it has its charm also. The 
traveller who has exhausted the re- 
sources of the West, to whom Amer- 
ica and Europe are an old story, finds 
himself in the home of romance when 
he enters the East. Its unfamiliarity 
is its charm, and who has wholly es- 
caped its spell? Poetry, and tales, and 
art, and mystery have come from the 
4 



C6e american point of i^ieto 

East, so that even the sight of the 
great ships engaged in the Eastern 
trade has been an inspiration. We 
love to emphasize the differences as 
we tire of the commonplace West. 
Travellers and authors flee to the 
Orient that their nerves may tingle 
with its freshness and novelty. 

"But there is neither East nor West, Border, 

nor Breed, nor Birth, 
When two strong men stand face to face though 
they come from the ends of the earth." 

So Mr. Kipling continues, and we may 
ask at least whether the East after 
all is separated from the West when 
each seeks to understand the other. 
Doubtless the Spirit of the East dif- 
fers from the Spirit of the West, else 
there would be no occasion for this 
book, but beneath them both is our 
common humanity. 
Deep and wide is our separation, and 
strange to each other are the two 
great earth Spirits, and yet all men 



C6e ©pitit of tt)c ©rient 



are one. Could we creep for a while 
into each other's skin and look through 
each other's consciousness, we should 
feel at home. The greater part of life 
is the same for all. We have like bod- 
ies with their members and their 
senses, we are subject to the same 
influences of air and light and dark- 
ness and earth and sky. We have the 
same needs for food and drink and 
sleep and clothes. We alike are social 
in our being, and the great drama of 
life, with its beginning and ending, its 
pains and joys, its loves and hates, is 
the same for all, so that in no met- 
aphorical sense, but in the most lit- 
eral meaning of the words, we are 
one. 
If we take a child of English birth 
and put it in an Eastern environment 
we shall not be able to distinguish it 
in mental traits from its comrades and 
neighbors. I knew a Chinese woman 
who was taken when an infant by a 
missionary and educated as his child 
6 



Cfte amencan Point of Bicto 

in his home, and none would know 
from her language, thought, char- 
acter, or interests that she is not an 
American born. Or in less favorable 
circumstances, school-boys have been 
transformed in a few years so that they 
were strangers and foreigners in the 
land of their birth. All of us who have 
had prolonged experience with Ori- 
entals can recall such examples. No! 
It is not anything inherent or by he- 
redity which separates us, nor can we 
look in this direction for our explana- 
tion of the Spirit of the Orient. 

Besides, are we so different by de* 
scent? Our students do not knownow- 
adayswhattomakeofthe word "race." 
When I went to school we were taught 
that there were such and such races 
with well-defined limits and bounda- 
ries, but scholars now have obliterated 
the boundaries. We do not know much 
aboutthe tangled linesof race descent, 
but we do know that some of our an- 
cestors long ago came out of Asia, 

7 



Cfte Spirit of tbeflDtiem 



while some of their brothers remained 
in the ancestral home and others went 
south to India, and others perhaps far 
east to the Pacific. We also know that 
wave after wave of Asiatic population 
has flowed over Europe, until we 
should be perplexed to define a pure 
European, or on racial lines to distin- 
guish East from West. 
In the beginning of our historic times 
the differences were not felt as to-day. 
The Greek hated the barbarian, but he 
did not distinguish Oriental from Oc- 
cidental and far down into the Chris- 
tian era the influence of Asia upon 
Europe was great. How much we owe 
to that continent, what stores of phi- 
losophy and art and religion! How in- 
deed shall the East be foreign to us, 
since our Saviour dwelt there and our 
prophets and sacred books are of it? 
Our Holy Land is in the Orient, and 
we cannot understand our scriptures 
without knowing something of its ge- 
ography, customs and tongues. An 
8 



Cfte gmetican l^omt of i^icto 

Oriental may be excused for not know- 
ing the Occident, but we show our- 
selves unintelligent if we confess ig- 
norance of the source ofsomuch which 
is of our own inheritance. 
There was no deep feeling of a con- 
tinental difference when Alexander 
made himself an Oriental monarch, 
nor, long after, when St. Paul to the 
Greeks became a Greek. Possibly the 
sense of separation came with the dark 
ages, when the East was blotted out 
and forgotten, and Europe developed 
on independent lines. Not only was 
there separation, but antagonism, 
when Moslem was arrayed against 
Christian, and Europe came to know 
itself as one because united in arms 
against the Turk. An impenetrable bar- 
rier of religion and hatred interposed, 
and men did not so much as wish to 
understand their deadly foes. Behind 
the Mohammedan power, India and 
China were too far away to be well 
remembered, so that their rediscovery 



Cfte Spirit of tbeSDriem 



at last was like the apparition of a 
new world. 

The separation was not complete, it 
is true, for through the Moors some- 
thing of enlightenment came to Eu- 
rope, and missionaries and merchants 
attempted adventures in the East at 
infrequent intervals. But the excep- 
tions did not change the rule, and in- 
tercommunication was not sufficient 
to influence the development of the 
two great sections of humanity along 
their divergent Unes. It is not surpris- 
ing that when at last in our own day 
the two civilizations are brought to- 
gether they are strange to each other. 
Let two brothers be separated for a 
score of years and how unfamiliar they 
are grown. European and Asiatic were 
separated for more than forty gene- 
rations, until religion, traditions, cus- 
toms, and conceptions of the world all 
are different. No wonder that we must 
be reintroduced, and that time is 
needed before we settle down once 

10 



Cfte ametican Point of Bieto 

more into our ancient acquaintance- 
ship. Besides, even in the old days, 
the acquaintance in the nature of the 
case was only partial. None then knew 
of any save the nearest neighbor, and 
the strangest things were believed of 
folks who were really near of place 
and blood. Only our time of marvels 
makes "the whole world kin" and re- 
news on better terms the primitive 
unity, as at last it is possible for us 
to know "all kinds and conditions of 
men." 

In this modern era an immense a- 
mount of strength and time has been 
given to the discovery of the East and 
to the scientific mastery of its facts. 
India, for example, is described in the 
volumes of the Imperial Census with 
a thoroughness that is admirable. Chi- 
na has been traversed in all directions, 
and in such a work as "The Middle 
Kingdom" we have a better summary 
of the people and their land than can 
be found in the Chinese language. Even 

II 



CfteSpintoftfteSDrient 



Tibet has now yielded its mysteries to 
the invader, while Burmah and Siam 
are nolongerremoteorunknown. With 
the same thoroughness the inner life of 
the people has been studied. It was 
English and French scholarship which 
opened the ancient religion of India 
again to the Hindus, and we under- 
stand Buddhism better than do the 
Buddhists. The long series of volumes, 
"The Sacred Books of the East," is 
only representative of a small portion 
of the labor expended upon the inves- 
tigation of these ancient religious sys- 
tems which enshrine the faith and 
hope of so large a part of mankind. 

Doubtless we do not know the East. 
There are more worlds to conquer, 
and in regions already traversed much 
has been overlooked, much has been 
misunderstood, so that there are er- 
rors to be corrected and gaps to be 
filled up. Nevertheless our claim is 
valid,— that we have material at hand 
which makes it possible for the Occi- 

12 



Cftc American point of Bieto 

dental to describe the Orient more 
completely, more justly, and more 
sympathetically than it has ever been 
described by its own sons. 
We have written of "East" and 
"West" as if these terms stood for 
well-defined ideas. But we know that 
the "West" is not one, and we should 
be hard put to it were we forced to 
define the word. We are conscious of 
our differences, and hesitate to class 
together Englishman, Italian, Hun- 
garian, Finn, Spaniard, South Ameri- 
can, Frenchman, German, Russian and 
American. In what, pray, are we alike 
and how shall so mixed a multitude 
be put together over against the Ori- 
entals? In the East the differences are 
as great at least. What relationship 
has the Arab to the Hindu? Can we 
class together the Turk and the peace- 
loving, commercial Chinese? How 
widely separated again are the Ko- 
reans from their near neighbors, the 
Japanese? In India itself there is 

13 



Cl)e@p{rttoftbe©tient 



a bewildering multitude of peoples 
and religions, some of them mutually 
hostile, with a hatred scarcely ri- 
valled by the hatred of Jew and Rus- 
sian. We can think of the East as 
one because we do not know it, as 
all Chinamen look alike to most 
Americans, the individual differences 
being overlooked. But to one famil- 
iar with the people their differing 
personalities are as striking as with 
ourselves. So it is with races. As our 
knowledge grows, the dissimilarity 
increases until we come to wonder 
that we could ever have thought all 
the dwellers in India to be alike, much 
less the differing races of the Asiatic 
continent. It is therefore only in the 
most vague fashion that we can speak 
of the "East" as an entity, or set it 
by way of contrast over against the 
"West." 

The "East" used to mean western 
Asia, the classic lands of our religion 
and the home of the Mohammedan 
14 



■^f 





C{)e ametican point of Bieto 



power, with India as a remote back- 
ground. But in our day there is a vast- 
er Orient. The Mohammedan lands, 
including Persia, are only its western 
frontier; India is its southern centre; 
while more important than them all 
are China and Japan in the Far East. 
Even the term "Far East" becomes a 
misnomer since the Pacific is the high- 
way of nations and Japan the nearest 
neighbor to our Californian ports. 
We have excluded from this sketch 
all central and northern Asia, a region 
of great historic significance and not 
without enduring influence. But its 
mere mention here is all that we can 
give to it, nor is it possible to include the 
lesser states of southeastern Asia in 
our survey. And further, we must cut 
off the older Orient, the true East of 
the Arabian Nights and the Crusades. 
We come, therefore, to the two re- 
maining portions, India and the Far 
East. Again we are tempted to divide, 
for how shall we group these together? 

15 



C6e@pitttDftl)e©tiem 



After careful consideration we decide 
to include them both, so that the 
"East" in this book shall mean India, 
ChinaandJapan,adistinction arbitrary 
in its inclusions and in its exclusions, 
and of use only in a practical and not 
a scientific way. 

Let us look over the geography of 
our field. Asia contains one third of 
the land surface of the globe, and may 
be divided along the fortieth degree 
of latitude. North of it are the great 
stretches of plains, deserts and low 
plateaux, to the Arctic Ocean, the 
rivers running north; while south of 
it, with some intervening space, are 
the empires where the people dwell 
with whom we are to deal. Even in 
this half, kingdoms must be ignored 
while we confine ourselves to India, 
China and Japan. Confine ourselves, 
did we inadvertently write? How could 
we write adequately of any of the 
three in twice our space? But one 
may comfort himself with the reflec- 
i6 



Cfte American Point of Bieto 

tion that he has to do only with the 
"spirit" of the East, and that he may 
ignore most of its outward form and 
be freed from statistics and geo- 
graphy and poUtics, save as they im- 
mediately affect the soul, and from a 
multitude of details however interest- 
ing. The Spirit too can spread over 
the Himalaya ranges, and cross the 
seas between China and Japan in a 
fashion impossible to plodding scien- 
tific research or to the most rapid 
globe-trotter. 

The dictionary tells us that "spirit" 
means "a peculiar animating and in- 
spiring principle; genius; that which 
pervades and tempers the conduct and 
thought of men, either singly or (es- 
pecially) in bodies, and characterizes 
them and their works." So we have 
the "spirit of the place" or the "spirit 
of the age." Evidently then there must 
be a certain unity in diversity, and 
the unity must be something which 
is essential if we are to speak of the 

17 



CfteSpitttoftbe^nent 



ii 



spirit" of the East. In what sense can 
we use the term? What unity pervad- 
ing and tempering the conduct and 
thoughts of men can we find? Perhaps 
we shall be helped if we ask ourselves 
what we might mean by the "spirit 
of the Occident." Let us strictly limit 
the West also, and including in it 
only the nations which have been 
closely associated — Italy, France, 
Germany, England, the United States 
— possibly we can find some ** genius" 
which will characterize them all. 

It is manifestly out of the question 
to find a "spirit" which shall be alike 
in all the innumerable multitude which 
constitute these populations. We 
know many Americans whom we 
should not wish regarded as embody- 
ing the American spirit. When we 
speak of a representative American 
we think of some man who stands 
out preeminent— a Washington, a 
Franklin, a Lincoln, an Emerson, a 
Longfellow — and say he is represent- 
i8 



Cfte american point of i^ieto 

ative and embodies the American 
spirit. It is related that once a group of 
Englishmen of letters discussed whom 
they would choose from all history to 
represent England were some new 
planet to open communication with 
our old earth, and that they decided 
upon Milton, immortal poet, scholar, 
statesman, gentleman. Christian. In 
some such fashion we pick out our re- 
presentative who embodies the Amer- 
ican spirit, that is, who incarnates our 
ideal, and set him forth as the kind 
of man we would have foreigners and 
strangers judge us by. 

It is perhaps impossible to pick out 
in this fashion the representative 
Occidental,— the differences are too 
great,— and therefore we must attack 
our problem in more indirect fashion. 
With all our diversity there is a cer- 
tain unity in the West, of religion, of 
social organization, of political forms, 
of history, of art and literature and 
music and architecture, of education 

19 



Cbe ©pint of tbe ©tiem 

and language and blood. With this 
too is the constant intermingling of 
our people and our perpetual inter- 
course in friendship or in rivalry. First 
we put religion, for this is the most 
powerful in its influence. When we 
say God, or heaven, or salvation, or 
sin, or church, our thoughts are more 
or less alike, and our diversities are 
not of race but of individuals, so that 
we may translate these terms at once 
into all the languages of the West 
without danger of being misunder- 
stood. Behind us is the same great 
background of religious truth; Israel 
with its prophets and apostles, the 
creeds of the early church, the organ- 
ization of the mediaeval church, the 
struggles of the Reformation, all be- 
long to all and produce a true unity 
in this realm of ultimate reality. 
So too are we one in our classical 
heritage; our literature is built upon 
the foundation of the Greeks, and the 
great writers of any of the peoples — 

20 



Cbe ametican Point of i^ietti 

Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe — are 
naturalized in all. Political systems 
dififer, yet the Roman law is the com- 
mon heritage. The peoples have the 
same aspirations after liberty, and the 
political, social and industrial organi- 
zations are on similar lines, all mov- 
ing along the same path and with the 
same end in view. Our art and archi- 
tecture have the same classic back- 
ground, the like Gothic and Renais- 
sance features with the same modern 
adaptions, for our students study in 
the same schools and use the same 
models, and gain in a kindred atmo- 
sphere the same inspiration. Science 
too overleaps boundaries and unites 
its votaries in the great Republic of 
Truth, so that our universities are 
cosmopolitan in the true sense, and 
nationality is regarded neither in stu- 
dent nor professor. Add to all this 
the intimate intercourse, the crowds 
which cross the ocean east and west, 
and the mingling of blood through in- 

21 



Cbe@pmtPft{)e©mm 



termarriages, so that no race is pure 
or without its tinctures of all the 
others, and we may well think that 
the differences are less than the agree- 
ments, and that Americans, English- 
men, Germans, Frenchmen and Ital- 
ians are one, joint heirs to a common 
heritage, united in a vigorous present, 
and in the hope of a still more glori- 
ous future. Surely one might set forth 
with ease what is the "genius" which 
constitutes the "spirit" of the West. 
But with the East how great the 
difference ! What has India in common 
with China, or either with Japan? 
There is no common history nor law 
nor social organization nor religion,— 
with Buddhism the only exception, — 
so that no interracial consciousness 
is realized. To the vast majority of 
these populations the thought of one- 
ness has never occurred, for Asia has 
never been one in war or peace. Only 
in our day by the reflex influence of 
Europe are Orientals coming to recog- 

22 



Cfte American Pomt of BietP 

nizea certain solidarity. Howthen can 
we speak of a "spirit of Asia" at all 
as distinguished from the "spirit" of 
Africa or of Europe? 
The question suggests its answer. 
Asia is not like Europe, nor like Af- 
rica. There is at least a certain unity 
of contrast. None takes the one for 
the other. It is said that Asiatics un- 
derstand each other at once in a fash- 
ion that is impossible to Europeans 
and Asiatics. All Europeans are "for- 
eigners" from Constantinople to the 
Pacific, but all Asiatics are in a sense 
at home in whatever part of this broad 
domain they wander, as we are at 
home even in the remoter parts of 
Europe. We know too in a general 
way what we mean when we speak 
of Asiatic customs, government, art 
and things in general, and we never 
misplace the adjectives European, Af- 
rican, Asiatic. Without attempting 
yet more precise definition, possibly 
we may put Africa for barbarism, Asia 

23 



Cfte %mtit oftbt ©tient 



for stagnant civilization, Europe for 
progress. Such definitions are not of 
much value, but they make a starting 
place. Africa produces no great civili- 
zation, as it was in the beginning so 
it remains, and all its glories are from 
without, its spots and periods of civ- 
ilization due to the presence of foreign 
peoples, with some periods of the 
Egyptian kingdom as a doubtful ex- 
ception. But India, China and Japan 
were civilized empires when our fa- 
thers were barbarians. They have pro- 
duced all the elements of civiliza- 
tion, highly developed religious and 
ethical teachings, complex systems of 
laws, refined philosophies, magnificent 
architecture and art and literature. 
Long, long ago they reached the 
stage our ancestors slowly and labori- 
ously attained millenniums after in 
part through the aid of the ancient civ- 
ilization of the East. But the East has 
stood still so long that it has come to 
identify its civilization with the laws 
24 



Cfie ametican Point ofi^ieto 

of nature and to think it as immov- 
able and as unimprovable. Man with 
all his work becomes a part of nature, 
and like it he is subject to Fate. 
We have thus a common feature, the 
immemorial character of Eastern civ- 
ilization, its early maturity and its com- 
parative immobility. In this we must 
not include Japan, as in many other 
respects also it is in a category by it- 
self; but the beginnings of the other 
two peoples are wholly lost in antiquity. 
How long ago were China and India 
already civilized? Frankly we do not 
know. Perhaps we are on historic 
ground when we go back to the tenth 
or twelfth century before Christ. At 
that early date the gaze of some im- 
mortal visitant to earth would have 
been attracted to Babylonia and to 
Egypt, to India and to China. Africa, 
save Egypt, then as now would have 
been in darkness, Europe would have 
been without form and void excepting 
possibly some stirrings where the glory 

25 



Cfte @>pirit of tbe ©tient 



of Greece was to be, but already China 
on a smaller scale would have shown 
the same features as to-day, and India 
would have revealed in germ what re- 
mains in old age. Were our visitor to 
return in this twentieth century A.D., 
after three thousand years, he would 
feel at home in China and in India; Af- 
rica would be repulsive as before, Eu- 
rope transformed and America dis- 
covered. 

We understand why our South Eu- 
ropean ancestors of the time of the 
Christian era did not feel the difference 
between East and West as we feel it, 
for there was no such difference. Sub- 
stantially all then stood on a level. But 
while the East has remained content, 
the West has moved on. So far we are 
perhaps on solid ground, but antiquity 
and stagnation do not mean very 
much. Can we find other indications of 
unity in India and China, characteris- 
tics comparable to those enumerated 
as constituting European oneness? 
26 



Cfte amctican l^oint of Bieto 

The noteworthy fact, first of all, as in 
Europe so in Asia, is religion. If we are 
to find a genuine oneness in the con- 
tents of consciousness it will be here. 
For Buddhism has been largely pre- 
dominant in the three empires alike. 
The Indian religion was made the state 
religion of China in the first century 
of the Christian era, and it became the 
state religion of Japan six centuries 
later. This has profound significance. 
Notwithstanding all our efforts, no 
great Asiatic people has accepted 
Christianity. They seem inaccessible 
to its powers as nations. But the great- 
est Asiatic nations yielded readily to 
Buddhism without the need of organ- 
ized missionary societies or a vast 
propagandism. With it went the art, 
the philosophy and many of the social 
customs of India. India became a far- 
away, dim, holy land to the peoples 
north and east, so that a certain his- 
toric and continental consciousness 
was created. No other positive insti- 

27 



C6e Spirit of tbeflDtient 



tution is comparable to this as a bond 
of union. 

Yet after all it is not comparable to 
the unity effected by Christianity in 
the West. There was nothing like the 
Crusades which gave Europe first its 
full sense of oneness, nor like the all- 
embracing organization of the Church 
of Rome. Shortly after Buddhism won 
China it lost importance in India, and 
finally entirely died out of the land of 
its birth. Nor even in the height of its 
powerwas there more than the merest 
fraction of the amount of intercourse 
which made for centuries the Catholic 
Church the most homogeneous and 
powerful organization on earth. Bud- 
dhism, moreover, after awhile decayed 
in China, and later still in Japan. In 
these empires educated men renounced 
it, and it became the religion of the 
ignorant and the superstitious, ceas- 
ing to influence further development. 

But there is a unity deeper than this af- 
forded by Buddhism, something which 
28 



s^^* 




Cfie ametican point of Bieto 

underlies Buddhism itself, and which 
separates profoundly East from West. 
I have said above that one may trans- 
late religious terms unhesitatingly into 
all the languages of Europe. But we 
cannot so translate Christian terms 
into Asiatic tongues. The missiona- 
ries after generations of debate can- 
not agree as to the proper word for 
God in Chinese. This indicates a fun- 
damental difference in the way of look- 
ing at the universe, and abstract as it 
may seem, a few words must be given 
to this subject or we shall not make 
a beginning in our effort to understand 
the spirit of the East. 
Europeans think of this universe as 
created by God out of nothing some 
six thousand years ago. Man is God's 
child, made in God's image, with an 
immortal soul and a destiny of pain 
or suffering according to his deeds and 
faith. Thus immense emphasis is put on 
the personality of God and man, while 
the world has been of secondary impor- 

29 



Cl)e Spirit of tfte ©tient 



tance. So it has been in the thoughts 
of Christendom for a thousand years, 
and other ideas are slowly displacing 
some of these only now in our own day, 
and however our thoughts of the world 
change, our estimate of the supreme 
value of personality remains. But to 
the Asiatic all is different. The uni- 
verse with its fixed laws and its resist- 
less fate is the ultimate fact. It exists 
from everlasting to everlasting. It goes 
on and on in ever-repeating cycles. It 
comes from chaos, assumes definite 
form, continues for a while, returns to 
chaos, and repeats the round worlds 
without end. Man is a part of this pro- 
cess, as are the gods themselves, the 
whole an organism with men and gods 
as incidents in its mighty movement. 
Possibly the vastness of Asia, which 
overpowers man, has produced this re- 
sult. In India the climate conquers, 
and none can resist it. The individual 
comes to a quick maturity, passes into 
an indolent middle life, and sinks with- 
30 



Cfte american poim oft^ieto 

out regret into old age. Englishmen 
avoid this only by short terms of ser- 
vice, by frequent vacations in more 
stimulating atmospheres, and by send- 
ing their children home to England 
at an early age. Nature is at once too 
prolific and too terrible; too prolific it 
yields enough for man without calling 
for strenuous endeavor; too terrible * 
it teaches him that his utmost labor 
is impotent before its vast calamities. 
China, it is true, has not thus con- 
quered man ; its climate does not ener- 
vate, nor its mountains appall, yet its 
long isolation, the vastness of its do- 
main and the immensity of its popula- 
tion have produced something of the 
same effect. To go through the com- 
mon round, to accompUsh the daily 
task, to live as the parents lived, is all 
that one can fairly ask. And beyond 
this there is no aspiration, and while 
individuals are ambitious of achieving 
success, for the race there comes no 
vision of a better time to come. Such 

31 



CteSpititoftfteflDrient 



a want of progress is not surprising, 
for it is man's normal state. Here with 
ourselves it is only the few who con- 
tribute to the advance of civilization. 
The majority are content. Let thiscon- 
tentment, which is akin to despair, 
take possession of a race and fatalism 
is the certain result. It is only where 
men think of God as Father that it can 
be escaped, or where they believe they 
have discovered a scientific method 
which will enable them to control na- 
ture. 

With such conceptions of nature and 
man it is not surprising that history in 
its true sense does not exist. The Hin- 
dus are notoriously deficient in his- 
toric interest. In China there are re- 
cords enough, and of two kinds, — mere 
annals of the past, dry and without hu- 
man interest ; or ethical, the past made 
to enforce by its events the teachings 
of the Sages. Real history has to do 
with progress, with the successive em- 
bodiment of high ideals in society. 
32 



Cfte American l^omt ofigieto 

That makes the interest of the Euro- 
pean story. In Asia there have been 
endless wars, but these havebeen mere 
struggles of king against king, or of 
race against race, resulting in no con- 
stitutional development and leaving 
the people unchanged whoever won. 
Hence it is impossible to get inter- 
ested in the story, as it is intolerably 
tedious, without real movement or re- 
sult. 

The internal story has been like the 
external. Great empires, like the Mug- 
hal, have arisen, magnificent, potent, 
luxurious, sometimes liberal and intel- 
lectual. But the same result has al- 
ways followed, and soon the splendor 
of the capital has caused intolerable 
misery among the people. Or, as in 
China, conquest has introduced merely 
a new set of rulers, who in turn have 
been transformed into the likeness of 
the people they have conquered. 

This want of development has been 
the result doubtless of the same causes 

33 



Cbe ©pint of tfte ©rient 



which have produced the religious 
views already described. The people 
have been content with tyranny as a 
part of the inevitable nature of things, 
content even with misery, since no 
way of escape appeared. Everything 
is, nothing becomes. All has been 
fixed. That rich should be rich, and 
that poor should be poor, that kings 
should rule and subjects obey, that 
the great events of life and death 
should be beyond control, and the 
small events of life, our calling, our 
etiquette, our clothes, our food, should 
be settled beyond dispute, — all this 
and more is a part of the unending 
round which is to-day as it was in the 
days of our fathers, and so it shall be to 
the remotest generation of those who 
come after us. Hence all go on without 
challenge or remonstrance, and it is 
only when there is some intolerable 
burden newly imposed by political 
tyranny that there is an uprising, and 
this is not in the interest of a new or- 
34 



Cbc amedcan Pomt of '©ieto 

der of society, but in an attempted 
easement of the old. 

Science represents the same spirit. 
There have been endless speculation 
and study, but they have expended 
themselves upon words and airy no- 
things. So science has never been for 
the understanding of the physical 
world that man may master it. Meta- 
physics instead of physics sums up 
the situation. Thought has been so 
refined that ordinary men could not 
grasp it, and the masses have been 
left to ignorance as to servitude. With 
religion, too, the same result has ob- 
tained. In its higher conceptions it 
has been the exclusive possession of 
the few, and its end has been escape 
from the round of the weary world, 
but both method and end have been 
too refined for the multitude, who are 
left to superstition and debasing idol- 
atry. 

Thus do we of the West judge the 
spirit of the East. It knows no pro- 

35 



C!)e©pmtoft!)eiaDtient 



gress, for its God is Fate. To some Fate 
gives power and wealth and long life 
and happiness, to some it gives toil 
and sorrow and superstition. Let each 
stand in his own place, knowing that 
struggle but increases sorrow. Science 
is transcendental metaphysics, reli- 
gion is withdrawal from the world, 
government is by the strongest and 
in the interest of the governors. 
Our description is true, we are con- 
vinced, and yet unjust. It is not the 
whole truth, for it produces a sense 
of sadness and depression which is 
unfair and too all-embracing. Let us 
remember that the great drama of 
life is the same with East and West 
alike, and that the joys which make 
up so large a part of our lives are 
theirs also. There as here, the com- 
mon talk, the common aspiration, the 
common grief and the common happi- 
ness are much the same. Could one 
be gifted with the gift of tongues and 
with an invisible and all-pervading 
36 



Cfae ametican Point of Bieto 

presence, he would be astonished to 
notice how exactlyaHke is nine tenths 
of the talk in all the regions of the 
earth, — weather, and crops, and money, 
and trade, and sickness, and birth, 
and death, and marriage, and food, 
and gossip, furnish its substance in 
India, in China and in Japan, as in 
Europe and America. 
The Spirit of the East has brought 
forth many noble sons of exalted 
lives,— statesmen, and poets, and war- 
riors, and law-givers, and holy men. 
In this, too, the West has no mono- 
poly. In these great representatives 
we must look for the embodiment of 
the spirit. In Asia the characteristic 
is retiracy from the world, a certain 
aloofness of soul, an indifference to 
outward state and fortune, and a con- 
viction that salvation is in the mind 
only. There is an exaltation above the 
heat and struggle of the world which 
charms many Occidentals, all of us, 
perhaps, in certain moods. Many men 

37 



Cbe^pirttoftbeflDtiem 



from the West enter into this spirit 
and come to prefer the retiracy and 
meditation and calm of the East to 
the bustle and toil and noise of our 
modern progress, for the real differ- 
ence between East and West is not 
of longitude but of habit and cast of 
mind. 

Butouradmirationandcondemnation 
are of Uttle moment. The East is too 
great a factor in the world to care for 
our judgment. It does not ask the con- 
sent of the West that it may exist, 
for the West is no nearer God than is 
itself, nor have we any peculiar title 
to the earth. So our task is not to 
criticise, but to attempt to understand 
these far-away peoples, our brothers 
of a common humanity. 



II 
Cbe asiatic point of Bieto 



9^tt 



II 

Cl^e ajsiatfc ^ofnt of mm 

HE traveller wearies of the 
East, with its discomforts, 
its squalor, its beggars and 
its pride. There is little to 
see, he thinks, after the first pictur- 
esqueness has worn off, and much to 
endure. Excepting again Japan, where 
in all Asia shall one be made fairly 
comfortable? It is only where the Oc- 
cidental has gone that there is a mea- 
sure of decent accommodation. The 
roads are not worthy of the name, the 
inns are abodes of misery, the means 
of transportation are primitive. Every- 
thing is disorganized, behind time and 
listless, so that the whole continent 
appears discouraged and systemless. 
The governments are at once ineffi- 
cient and burdensome, and the peo- 
ple either arrogant or servile. They 
lie and cheat, and are generally con- 
temptible and untrustworthy. Nothing 

41 



C6e@prtitoft{)efl)rient 



is done at the right time nor in the 
right way. This at least is our impres- 
sion after reading wearisomely book 
after book written on India and China, 
after conversing with residents, and 
visiting the lands and observing their 
effect upon travellers. Said Lord El- 
gin of the Chinese diplomatists, "They 
yield nothing to reason and everything 
to force, "and another distinguished re- 
presentative of Great Britain declared 
the East a sad training-school for di- 
plomatists, since there are only two 
classes, bulUes and bullied. These ut- 
terances express the common notion, 
and it is as prevalent among mer- 
chants as among officials. The ordi- 
nary mortal comes to feel that he is 
surrounded with trickery, and that he 
can best get his way by force. So as 
the great diplomatists bully govern- 
ments with fleets and armies, private 
citizens bully individuals with oaths 
and fists. I once heard an English 
planter from Ceylon complain of his 
42 



Cfte agiatic Point of Bieto 

government there, "It is ruining the 
natives, for things have got to such a 
pass that one may be hauled before a 
magistrate merely for knocking down 
his servant!" How many natives have 
been knocked down, and yet have 
fawned upon their assailant? Who can 
forget the thrill of horror with which 
he first saw (in Cairo it was for me) 
officials using whips on the backs of 
their fellow countrymen? 

No wonder that travellers find a few 
weeks enough for India or China, trav- 
ellers we mean as distinct from schol- 
ars who will find a lifetime all too short 
for either. The globe-trotter wearies 
of tombs and temples, and comes to 
think "Oriental magnificence" mythi- 
cal. He finds its remains, indeed, at 
Agra and Delhi, and profusion, dis- 
play and extravagance in the capitals 
of the native princes. But with it all 
there is a lack of finish and of atten- 
tion to detail, so that the effect is not 
pleasing. So it is in Peking; the palace, 

43 



Ct)e§)pmtoftl)e©nent 



opened at last to foreign eyes, con- 
tained, like all Oriental palaces, many 
articles of beauty, but in such confu- 
sion and with so much of disorder and 
of positive filth that the total effect 
was repulsive. Gradually it becomes 
apparent that the East is not the home 
of splendor nor of wealth. Either the 
ancient tradition was the exaggera- 
tion of travellers' tales, or more likely 
it was the effect of our comparative 
barbarism. So our good American con- 
cludes that his pretty little town in the 
United States is **good enough for 
him," and that we have more things 
worth seeing than have all the multi- 
tudes of mankind in the storied Ori- 
ent. Who that has walked the streets 
of Jerusalem, or stopped in a Chinese 
inn, or observed the plague-stricken 
condition of some village community 
of India, can fail to sympathize with 
him? And if one find here and there 
an exception, the home of some rich 
merchant in China, a garden of tran- 
44 



tE:bt 90mtic Point of Bieto 

scendent beauty in India, some Ori- 
ental mansion with blank wall to the 
street but luxury within in the Mo- 
hammedan domains, he wonders the 
more that a people who can develop 
here and there an oasis will permit the 
wilderness elsewhere to prevail. 

Our straightforward American, ac- 
customed to streets crossing at right 
angles, lined with trees, with pretty 
houses equipped with every comfort, 
longs to bring some of the "natives" 
to the United States for an object 
lesson that will revolutionize their 
modes of thought and life. He over- 
looks the fact that there are object 
lessons closer at hand, in the foreign 
settlements in Bombay and Hong- 
kong and Shanghai, and yet that the 
native life goes on as before. The av- 
erage Oriental seems impervious to 
attacks whether as traveller in the 
West or as an observer of foreign 
ways at home. Even after years amid 
all our modern improvements he goes 

45 



Cbe Spirit of t{)e©nent 



home unchanged, to cast his new 
habits at once, and to return to the 
easy-going customs of the past. The 
new does not appear worth its cost to 
him. 

An Asiatic who had lived in diplo- 
matic circles in Paris declared that the 
game was not worth the candle,— the 
endless engagements, the notes which 
must be answered, the formal parties 
and dinners and public functions. His 
own ideal was a garden and a man- 
sion where one could do as he pleased, 
where one visited his friends at his 
own desire, and entertained or not as 
the whim seized him, where there 
was no mail, and no newspapers, and 
no need for a calendar or a notebook. 
Our civilization was so filled with ma- 
chinery that it destroyed repose and 
charm and the true taste of life. We 
hasten and have so much to do; why 
not enjoy now what we have? Time 
hastens away; why use it all in pre- 
paring to live? Besides, after all, what 
46 



Cfte asiatic point of Bieto 

are these reforms? Take the world as 
it comes, you cannot change it. 

In some such fashion the Oriental re- 
turns our criticism. Yet all summaries 
are unjust, for there is no such thing 
as "Oriental opinion." We have possi- 
bly an average American opinion as to 
the East, but we have many Ameri- 
cans who think this average judgment 
"Philistine" and prefer Eastern ways 
of lifeand thought. So in the East there 
are men who frankly admire the West 
and would reform the East upon its 
model. But the larger part as with us 
are indifferent, not taking the trouble 
to form an opinion, and the larger part 
of the thinking minority are frankly 
hostile. Between the two extremes are 
all degrees of admiration and antipa- 
thy. Besides, the ordinary Oriental is 
not given to free expression of his sen- 
timents, and he is as untrained in ob- 
servation as he is unwilling in expres- 
sion. Hence many of the judgments 
of East and West most often quoted 

47 



Cfie Spirit of tbe ©tient 



from Orientals are from men who have 
been trained in Europe and America, 
and who in their criticism reflect their 
adopted point of view. If we attempt, 
then, to learn what the East really 
thinks of us we shall be cautious, and 
rest content with setting forth simply 
what some Orientals say of us. 

First let us hear the language of thor- 
oughgoing detestation. For such ex- 
pressions we must go to men of posi- 
tion and of education. The common 
people for the greater part neither un- 
derstand nor care about these things. 
My first quotation is from Japan. Its 
writer was a good representative of 
the old regime, scholar, soldier, gen- 
tleman, patriot. He had the sincerity 
of the martyr, and he perished because 
of his impassioned opposition to the 
course of the government in opening 
Japan to foreign intercourse. He died 
in 1862, and the little book from which 
I quotewas printed in December, 1857. 
It is a tirade against Western science, 
48 



Cfte ggiatic Point of i^ieto 

and its contention is that our learning 
is superficial, while the Chinese is pro- 
found and of the heart: 

"Followers of the Western learning 
shamelessly say that the West knows 
the laws of the universe. They are 
rebels who exhibit a forged seal of 
state and gather a vile rabble. True 
disciples of Confucius and Mencius 
should raise their banner, expose the 
counterfeit and destroy these false 
scholars. The learning of the West 
knows only the outward, and deals 
with the seen, it cannot understand fun- 
damental principles. Foreigners are 
minute in researches, and careful in 
measurements, but they do not under- 
stand that the true *Way' of the uni- 
verse is benevolence, righteousness, 
loyalty and truth. Hence their learn- 
ing cannot make them virtuous. Their 
astronomy is wonderful in its mea- 
surements, but it destroys reverence 
for Heaven, and makes them think it 
a dead material thing. They do not 

49 



Cfie Spirit of tbeDtient 



know that Heaven and man are one, 
and that the essential nature of both 
is righteousness. They are like chil- 
dren who should measure carefully 
the features of their father's body, and 
care nothing for his heart. Besides, all 
that is essential is in our own ancient 
books which contain the root of the 
matter. Why neglect it and go to the 
foreigners for the leaves and branches? 
The foreigners do not know these 
books, and are like the brutes in con- 
sequence, and alas! our own scholars, 
misled by appearances, forsake the 
truth and go astray. Heaven is high, 
exalted, beyond our little efforts to ex- 
tol or belittle it, beyond our praise or 
blame. Would we benefit it, we can- 
not; would we kill it, it is beyond our 
reach. Only as its *Way' is followed 
and its laws observed can it be served. 
Let each one die for duty, there is 
naught else that one can do." 
This sincere patriot and philosopher 
thus rejects Western learning because 
50 



Cfte 3imtic Point of Bieto 

of its unworthiness. It may, indeed, he 
thinks, help out the affairs of man's 
outward Hfe, but it does not minister 
to the moral and the spiritual. We can 
readily understand his position as we 
remember how in the West the ad- 
vances of physical science have been 
resisted in the supposed interests of 
religion. As our leaders have talked of 
*^ science falsely so called" under the 
impression that it opposed the revela- 
tion of God, so it is in the East. It has 
been the most sincere and believing 
men who have been chief in the oppo- 
sition. Dr. Arthur Smith expresses the 
same opinion in writing of the Chinese 
literati: **To suppose that anything 
could be added to their wisdom is as 
arrogant an assumption to the Ortho- 
dox Confucianist as it would be to a 
Christian for one to claim that an ap- 
pendix to the New Testament is to be 
looked forwhich shall be of equal value 
and authority with its twenty-seven 
books." Such is the convinced judg- 

51 



Cbe Spirit of tf)e©mnt 



ment too of the Mohammedan world 
as to the Koran and of the Hindus as 
to their sacred books. Thus, to the 
trained and educated "natives" of 
these lands our learning is of trifling 
import compared with the deeper wis- 
dom of their sages and saints. 

This notion that our superiority is 
physical and material while theirs is 
moral and spiritual is widespread and 
deep-rooted. A distinguished repre- 
sentative of American Christianity on 
a visit to India repelled the natives by 
insisting upon the advanced position, 
the power and wealth of the Christian 
nations. "Granting all you claim," they 
replied, "what has it to do with reli- 
gion?" This idea was expressed at the 
Parliament of Religions in Chicago by 
the Chinese secretary of the Chinese 
legation in Washington: 

"What Christ means by calling at- 
tention to the lilies of the field has a 
parallel in the Confucian doctrine of 
doing one's daily duties and awaiting 
52 



Cfte ggiatic point ofigieto 

the call of fate. The object of all this 
is to teach men to put down the de- 
sires of the flesh, and to preserve the 
moral sense which is inherent in hu- 
man nature in a state of activity. The 
meaning of the above-cited passage is 
clear enough from the Chinese as well 
as the English version of the Bible. 
Missionaries in China, however, often 
contend in their controversial writ- 
ings that the Christian nations of the 
West owe their material well-being 
and political ascendency to their reli- 
gion. It is difficult to see upon what 
this argument is based. When teach- 
ers of religion speak of material pros- 
perity and political ascendency in such 
commendable terms, they in fact turn 
away from teaching religion to propa- 
gating such theories of government as 
were advocated by Kwan-tz, Shang-tz 
and Tao Chukung. It is the end of ev- 
ery government, indeed, to strive after 
material prosperity and political as- 
cendency. Christ, however, proposes 

53 



Cbe ©pitit of tl)c ©tiem 



an entirely different end, which is, to 
seek the Kingdom of Heaven. He cer- 
tainly did not hold up the foreign mas- 
ters that were exercising supreme po- 
litical control over his own country at 
the time as an example worthy of imi- 
tation."^ 

Nor are such expressions from the 
literati only, for our author goes on to 
say: 

"Missionaries take great pleasure in 
teaching others in the name of Christ 
that after death they may hope to go 
to Heaven, but the people of the East 
have a notion that after death the soul 
descends into Hades. When I was at- 
tached to the Board of Punishment at 
Lang Chang, I often had opportunity 
to examine the papers relating to cases 
of riot against missionaries which had 
been sent up to the board by the pro- 
vincial authorities. I frequently came 
across expressions like *I prefer to go 

♦"World's Parliament of Religions," which is authority also for 
quotations in the next four pages. 

54 



C6e a^iatic Point of Bieto 

to Hades; let him go to Heaven/ used 
by the defendants in their depositions. 
It is easy to infer the intense bitter- 
ness of their hatred from this. Those 
men were evidently under the opinion 
that they were writing their hostile 
feelings against Christ, though they 
knew not who Christ was. 

"Yet it is not entirely unreasonable 
that the terrified suspicion, or you 
may say superstition, that Christianity 
is the instrument of depredation, is 
avowedly or unavowedly aroused in 
the Oriental mind when it is an ad- 
mitted fact that some of the most 
powerful nations of Christendom are 
gradually encroaching upon the Ori- 
ent." 

Alas! It is "not entirely unreasona- 
ble," since the history of international 
discourse has been a history of aggres- 
sion, and since the people of the East 
have come to believe that commer- 
cial exploitation and conquest are the 
chief end of Western governments. 

55 



Cbe Sipint of tbe ©dent 



In India also we find the claim to a 
higher wisdom and a more truly eth- 
ical life, nor is there any reason to 
doubt its sincerity. This is the way 
even our religious activity appears to 
the higher minds in the land which is 
so wearisome to our ordinary traveller : 

"My friend, I am often afraid, I con- 
fess, when I contemplate the condi- 
tion of European and American soci- 
ety, where your activities are so man- 
ifold, your work so extensive, that 
you are drowned in it, and you have 
little time to consider the great ques- 
tion of regeneration, of personal sanc- 
tification, of trial and judgment, and 
of acceptance before God. That is the 
question of all questions. A right the- 
ological basis may lead to social re- 
form, but a right line of public activity 
and the doing of good is bound to 
lead to the salvation of the doer's soul 
and the regeneration of public men." 

"Thus by insight into the immanence 
of God's spirit in nature, thus by intro- 
56 



Cfie matte Point of i^ieto 



spection into the fullness of the divine 
presence in the heart, thus by raptur- 
ous and loving worship, and thus by 
renunciation and self-surrender, Asia 
has learned and taught wisdom, prac- 
tised and preached contemplation, 
laid down rules of worship, and glori- 
fied the righteousness of God. 

"In the West you observe, watch 
and act. In the East we contemplate, 
commune, and suffer ourselves to be 
carried away by the spirit of the uni- 
verse. In the West you wrest from 
nature her secrets, you conquer her, 
she makes you wealthy and prosper- 
ous, you look upon her as your slave, 
and sometimes fail to recognize her 
sacredness. In the East nature is our 
eternal sanctuary, the soul is our 
everlasting temple, and the sacred- 
ness of God's creation is only next to 
the sacredness of God himself In the 
West you love equality, you respect 
man, you seek justice. In the East 
love is the fulfillment of the law, we 

57 



Cfte ©pint of tfte ©tient 



have hero worship, we behold God in 
humanity. In the West you estabhsh 
the moral law, you insist upon pro- 
priety of conduct, you are governed 
by public opinion. In the East we 
aspire, perhaps vainly aspire, after 
absolute self-conquest, and the holi- 
ness which makes God its model. In 
the West you work incessantly, and 
your work is your worship. In the 
East we meditate and worship for 
long hours, and worship is our work. 
Perhaps one day, after this parliament 
has achieved its success, the Western 
and Eastern men will combine to 
support each other's strength and 
supply each other's deficiencies. And 
then that blessed synthesis of human 
nature shall be established which alll 
prophets have foretold, and all the 
devout souls have sighed for." 
Thus is set over against our claim 
to a higher civilization as strong a 
pretension to a deeper spirituality and 
to profounder thought. In these pas- 
58 



Cbe Simtic Point of i&ieto 

sages just quoted India's ideal comes 
to full expression, and not only India's 
but Asia's, for listen to a native of 
Japan who writes English equal to 
that of our Hindu friend: 

"Asia is one. The Himalayas divide 
only to accentuate two mighty civili- 
zations, the Chinese with its commu- 
nism of Confucius, and the Indian with 
its individualism of the Vedas. But 
not even the snowy barriers can in- 
terrupt for one moment that broad 
expanse of love for the Ultimate and 
Universal, which is the common 
thought-inheritance of every Asiatic 
race, enabling them to produce all the 
great religions of the world, and dis- 
tinguishing them from those maritime 
peoples of the Mediterranean and the 
Baltic, who love to dwell on the par- 
ticular, and to search out the means, 
not the end of life." ^ 

This then is the contrast : the West 
seeks convenience, contrivance, com- 

* "The Ideals of the East," Kakuzo Okakura, p. i. 

59 



C6e Spirit of t{)e2Drient 



fort, the victory over matter; the East 
seeks after the Absolute, God, and its 
victory is of the Spirit. Man, as we 
have already said, seems overpowered 
by nature in the East, but he attempts 
to conquer it in the West. It is at 
least something gained if we recog- 
nize that current opinion represents 
more or less accurately the two spir- 
its. It is true that the ordinary Amer- 
ican criticises the Orient for its lack 
of material progress, and that the Ori- 
ental criticises us for our absorption 
in these things. We shall not attempt 
to estimate the correctness of the 
criticism, nor to judge between the 
two estimates, for our present task is 
merely to understand. 

But surely, our American interposes, 
there can be no dispute as to the ad- 
vantages of cleanliness over filth, of 
attractive villages over slums, and in 
general of modern methods over an- 
cient ways. So it seems to us, but the 
East will not readily acknowledge it. 
60 



Cfte aslatic Point of Bieto 

The way their fathers trod is their 
way. Would you have them wiser or 
better than their revered forefathers? 
So tradition and custom form a bar- 
rier which is almost impenetrable. 
Take sanitation, for instance; one 
would think the visitation of the plague 
would cause all to flee to modern sci- 
ence for safety; but no! the natives 
of Bombay resisted so stoutly the 
efforts of the authorities that efforts 
at control were given up and the ter- 
rible scourge is left unchecked, claim- 
ing in one year more than a million 
victims. 

A missionary, impressed with the 
inefficient methods of agriculture, un- 
improved since the days of Alexander 
the Great, tilled a plot of ground in 
the American fashion, with results far 
beyond all Indian precedent. But none 
followed his example, not even though 
he imported ploughs and offered them 
for sale at less than the price of native 
ones. The people could not see that 

6i 



C6e ©pint of tfte ©tient 



which was before their eyes, and as- 
cribed his success not to his instru- 
ments but to some occult virtue in 
him as a foreigner. The weight of the 
past is too heavy, and the bondage of 
custom too strong for emancipation 
to win, and the "native" remains un- 
convinced and unimpressed. It is nat- 
ural to him that some should succeed 
and others fail, and his own lot is to 
submit and suffer. 

These are the peasants, and in India. 
Perhaps they do not represent the 
spirit of Asia. Take another example. 
A distinguished Chinese nobleman 
represented his country for years at 
the court of St. James, and finally he 
wrote his impressions for an Eng- 
lish review. He was not insensible to 
the position of Western states nor to 
the advantages of Western civiliza- 
tion. But after all what should one do? 
The conditions in China are so finely 
balanced, the population is so closely 
proportioned to the means of liveli- 
62 



Cbc ggiattc Pomt of Bieto 

hood, the occupations by which one 
may gain a liveHhood are so preempted 
that any disturbance in economic re- 
lations causes death to thousands. 
To build a railway means that thou- 
sands of carriers shall starve, and to 
introduce machinery is to deprive 
multitudes of all chance for gaining a 
livelihood. Possibly, in the end, the 
country will gain a benefit, but who 
shall venture to decree the misery in- 
volved on the chance of helping some 
future generation? Besides, we are in 
the hands of Fate ; centuries ago China 
was as much ahead of Europe as the 
latter now is ahead of Asia. Possibly 
the wheel of fate may turn again and 
the future see once more the lots re- 
versed, and if not, what can man do 
against the resistless currents of the 
universe? 

There is doubtless another side. 
Some Asiatics know that the West 
is not wholly immoral and greedy. 
Some, too, are ready to agree that its 

63 



Cbe ©pftit of tfte SDrient 



intercourse with Asia has taught les- 
sons which Asia may well learn, and 
conferred benefits which should excite 
gratitude. Let us hear this other side. 
Once on a steamer going from Co- 
lombo to Bombay I met two Kulim 
Brahmans, that is, men of the highest 
caste India knows. They were grad- 
uates of the University, spoke Eng- 
lish well, and knowing that I was an 
American, spoke their minds freely. 
This was the substance of their opin- 
ion as to their English rulers: 
Individual Englishmen we dislike. 
They are proud and insulting often. 
But we acknowledge the benefits of 
English rule. It gives us peace. Were 
it withdrawn we should fly at once at 
each other's throats and end by be- 
coming the prey of Russia. Then, too, 
England gives us justice. In the past 
India never knew it, but now the 
foreign judge is incorruptible, and so 
far as in him lies does equal justice to 
every man. This of itself compensates 
64 



Cfte a^iatic IPomt of Bieto 



for all the annoyances of British rule. 
^ This is not a solitary judgment, but 
IS held by many intelligent men. It is 
well expressed by a native writer in 
the columns of the "Indian Nation," a 
paper ably conducted and most appro- 
priately designated: 

"An enlightened administration of 
justice, especially in criminal cases, 
religioustoleration, liberty ofthe press, 
liberty of holding meetings and peti- 
tioning—these are the rights which 
we in this country have so easily ac- 
quired that we are in danger of under- 
valuing them. We have secured by a 
few strokes of the pen of beneficent 
legislators advantages which English- 
men have had in their own country to 
buy with their blood." ^ 

"It is a practical commentary on the 
truth and justice of the charge brought 
against natives that they bitterly hate 
the dominant race as a rule, that in- 
dividual attachment to individual Eng- 

* " New India," by Sir H. J. S. Cotton. 

65 



Cjbe ©pitit of t{)e ©rient 



lishmen should be so marked a trait 
in native character. It is hardly pos- 
sible to travel over any part of India, 
where some individual Englishman 
has not left the impress of his hand, 
whether for good or evil, on the local- 
ity and its people. And it reflects the 
highest credit and honor on the native 
races that while the names of the bad 
and oppressive men have been almost 
forgotten, the memory of the good, 
just or charitable Englishmen has 
been preserved by tradition in perfect 
freshness— a perpetual testimony to 
the simplicity, forgiving spirit and 
gratitude of the Indian character. The 
native heart is naturally kind, but the 
kindness becomes warmer when the 
object of it is a member of the domi- 
nant class. It is not always because 
we expect any return from him, but 
it is a peculiar feeling with us to be 
anxious to stand well with a race to 
whom we owe so many obligations as 
a fallen and subject people. If those 
66 



Cfte Simtic Point of Bieto 

obligations had been unmixed with 
quite as great wrongs, it is] our fear 
that Englishmen might have been ob- 
jects of our idolatry, so enthusiastic 
is our regard and affection for all who 
really mean to confer or have con- 
ferred on us any great benefits."^ 

But higher testimony still is at hand. 
The Eastern search for the " Ultimate 
and the Absolute" had run its course. 
Ancient religion had sunk into debas- 
ing superstition without possibiHty of 
revival from within. Then came the 
powerful nations of the West, and 
with them new life for the East: 

"Our Anglo-Saxon rulers brought 
with them their high civilization, 
their improved methods of education 
and their general enlightenment. We 
had been in darkness and had well- 
nigh forgotten our bright and glorious 
past. But a new era dawned upon us. 
New thoughts, new ideas, newnotions 
began to flash upon us one after an- 

* "New India," by Sir H. J. S. Cotton. 

67 



Cbe Spirit of tfteiaDnent 



other. We were rudely aroused form 
our long sleep of ignorance and self- 
forgetfulness. The old and the new 
met face to face. We felt that the old 
could not stand in the presence of the 
new. The old began to see in the 
light of the new and we soon learned 
to feel that our country and society 
had been for a long time suffering 
from a number of social evils, from 
the errors of ignorance and from the 
evils of superstition. Thus we began 
to bestir ourselves in the way of social 
organization. Such, then, were the 
occasion and the origin of the work 
of social reforms in India. "^ 
That quotation represents a state of 
mind seldom found perhaps in India, 
not often met in China, but character- 
istic of Japan. We have left this em- 
pire for the most part out of our re- 
view. Many Asiatics regard it as a 
traitor to the East and as the willing 
ally of the West. But it at least makes 

* •• Parliament of Religions." 

68 



Cbe agiatic pomt of Bieto 

a choice. We should, however, misun- 
derstand its attitude were we to think 
it the undiscriminating copyist of our 
ways. It beheves that West and East 
have each their part to give to the 
greater humanity of the future, and 
that Japan, understanding both, is to 
unite them, making the future better 
than the present and far nobler than 
the past. That this is Japan's high 
mission is the faith of her noblest 
sons. 

Whether it be so or not, we cannot 
turn away unmoved from the vision. 
If God rules we cannot join in the 
wholesale condemnation of the East 
as if it were a blot on His creation. 
Its long story must have a meaning, 
and it doubtless has its own message 
for us. Neither can we agree to its 
condemnation of the West. We have 
faults enough; we are materialistic, 
greedy, proud, but we are not wholly 
of the earth earthy. Here, too, are 
spirituality and pure morality and 

69 



Cfte Spirit of tbeHDtient 



profound thought. We have our les- 
sons for the East, and as we come to 
understand each other we shall both 
learn, and from our intercourse may 
we not believe that the old antipathies 
will pass away and that, though East 
remain East and West remain West, 
still there shall be triumphant over 
both the nobler spirit of our common 
humanity, a spirit which holds all men 
as brothers as all have one Father, 
God? 



Ill 
3InDia, its l^eople anD Customs 




Ill 
^nhia, ftji ptoplt anJ) Cusstomss 

UR attempt to describe the 
spirit of the East is con- 
fessedly inadequate, for who 
can pretend to embody that 
which is so illusive? Now we are to 
study the three great countries in turn 
with the purpose of testing our state- 
ments a httle more in detail. Natu- 
rally India comes first, naturally be- 
cause of its immemorial relationship 
to ourselves and because of its rela- 
tionship to the lands farther east. We 
could not reverse the order. India has 
been known to the West from the 
dawn of history, and it has contributed 
much to our civilization. Some of its 
people, too, are distant relatives of our 
own. And it has also made an impres- 
sion on China, and through China on 
Japan. Thus it is truly a world centre, 
sending influences throughout the 
East and the West, so that it has 

73 



Cfie Spirit of tbe ©rient 



reached all parts of the globe. It is a 
continent in itself, 1,900 miles from 
north to south, and 1,900 miles from 
east to west, with a population of more 
than 290,000,000 souls. This vast area 
is divided, excluding Burmahand Cey- 
lon, into three great divisions: First, 
the great mountain region in the north, 
the dwelling-place of the snows, Him- 
alaya. One climbs laboriously the foot- 
hills, themselves mountain chains with 
beautiful valleys and wide fertile re- 
gions, until he reaches a ridge whence 
he looks down into an intervening val- 
ley, with the wall on the other side 
which divides Asia, a wall averaging 
twenty thousand feet in height, with 
the loftiest peaks in the world, and 
with valleys into which the Alps might 
be dropped and hidden. There are hun- 
dreds of miles so high that their sum- 
mits have never been trodden by the 
foot of man or beast. It seems impos- 
sible that the region should be a part 
of our common world, so dazzling is 
74 



glnPia, itg People anP Cu0tam0 

it and so lofty, like a white veil let 
down from heaven and resting lightly 
upon the earth. These mountains con- 
stitute a great system with parallel 
ranges and spurs jutting out to the 
southeast and southwest. From the 
earliest times they have formed a bar- 
rier, impassable in its greater extent 
to men excepting at its ends, where 
the hills break down, or through in- 
frequent and difficult passes. Second, 
the great river plains. Middle India 
stretching along the courses of the 
Indus, the Ganges and the Brahma- 
putra. Here have been the seats of the 
great empires and the home of the 
densest populations. South of the plain 
comes the southern hill country, the 
Deccan, its northern boundary the 
Vindhya range. This plateau is bound- 
ed by the Vindhyas on the north and 
the ocean on the east, south and west, 
with the two coast ranges called the 
Ghats, which meet in the south at Cape 
Comorin. This region was the last to be 

75 



Cfte Spirit of tfte flDtiem 



civilized, and has still in our day many 
wild tribes among its inhabitants. 

In remote antiquity Mongolian peo- 
ples, Mongoloid the scientists call 
them, came into India from the north- 
east. They occupied the slopes of the 
Himalaya Mountains, and followed 
the course of the Brahmaputra a little 
way into Bengal. They mingled with 
the peoples who had preceded them, 
and fared variously, some advancing 
in civilization and some deteriorating. 
There their descendants still remain, 
the languages showing traces of an 
ancient connection with the Chinese. 
But the great road, the great series 
of roads, into the land was from the 
northwest. Thence came a succession 
of peoples and of races. In historic 
times Alexander the Great thus en- 
tered India, and the British Empire 
watches the passes with jealous care, 
knowing that from thence must come 
the Russians if their dreams of Indian 
conquest are to be realized. 
76 



31nDia, its People anD Customs 

But long before Alexander, long be- 
fore there were any Englishmen, per- 
haps thirty-five hundred years ago— 
a few centuries do not matter, we shall 
try to be exact within say five hundred 
years — the people came who were to 
form the India we know, the Aryans, 
tall, well-formed, light-colored, with a 
noble language and a great religion. 
They dwelt long in the valleys and on 
the slopes of the mountains, and then 
slowly, in the course of centuries, oc- 
cupied the river plains. They went far 
to the south also along the western 
coast, but in the centre and the east 
they were halted permanently by the 
Vindhya range. 

How they came to win the land we 
do not know. There are traces of the 
process in their sacred books. It was 
doubtless partly by conquest. They de- 
spised and subjugated the "natives," 
hating their black color, their short 
bodies, their pug noses and their half- 
savage ways. In the sacred books 

77 



C6e Spirit of tbe SDtient 



these humble folks appear as savages 
and demons. But traces remain which 
show that the aborigines were neither 
savages nor demons but people with 
a certain rudimentary civilization, in- 
capable, however, of maintaining 
themselves against the new-comers 
from the north. Nor are we to suppose 
that the conquest was wholly by war. 
There were compromise and barter 
and intermarriage, until at last the Ar- 
yans were in possession of middle In- 
dia, and the others fled to the south, 
where they found refuge in the Dec- 
can, or remained as outcastes, or be- 
came by marriage and amalgamation 
a part of the superior race. 
But the way which proved so easy 
for the Aryan was to suffice for their 
conquerors. A thousand years ago 
Mohammedans came over the same 
mountain heights, and after centuries 
of varying fortunes finally controlled 
India, with their capitals at Delhi and 
at Agra, and victorious soldiers ex- 
78 



3[nDfa, m People ano Cu0tomg 

alted above the highest Brahman in 
the land. Partly by immigration and 
partly by assimilation the Muslim in- 
creased mightily, becoming a great 
factor in the population as in the gov- 
ernment, making his mark clear and 
firm upon the institutions of the peo- 
ple. It was from these Mohammedan 
rulers that Great Britain wrested the 
land, and even yet they retain the 
pride of conquerors, and resent the in- 
tellectual advancement and superior- 
ity of the Hindus. Still, too, this re- 
ligion makes progress, multitudes of 
low-caste people embracing the virile 
faith which advances them at once in 
social status. 

Roughly, then, we divide the people, 
like the land, into three main divi- 
sions — the ancient people represented 
by numerous tribes, speaking many 
languages, with the outcastes, who 
live in the suburbs of the Hindu towns, 
lowest in the scale, though longest on 
the land; the Aryans, in part perhaps 

79 



Cfte Spirit of tfteflDtient 



still pure in blood but for the greater 
part intermarried with members of 
the subject races, constitutingthe vast 
majority of the people now, and the 
efficient factors in the production of 
Indian poetry, literature, philosophy 
and rehgion; and finally, the Moham- 
medans, new-comers, that is to say, 
within a thousand years, conscious of 
their military superiority, but, on the 
whole, in nothing above those who 
had preceded them. Besides there are 
other races of smaller numbers but of 
great interest, like the Parsis, descend- 
ants of the ancient fire-worshippers of 
Persia, expelled from their own coun- 
try by Mohammedan invaders, and 
now prospering greatly under British 
rule. There are less than a hundred 
thousand of them, and they live for 
the greater part near Bombay. Then, 
too, there are Sikhs, a military race 
with a religion of their own, of course, 
since in India religion counts for 
everything and race for little, who 
80 



3InDm, it!^ People anD Customs 

make the best of auxiliary troops 
under foreign leadership; and Jains, 
whose faith goes back to the time of 
Buddha. Thus if India is continental 
in size it is more than continental in 
the variety of inhabitants, and never 
from the earliest dawn of its history 
has it produced even a temporary 
unity or any consciousness of soli- 
darity. Its population is more than 
twice that of the Roman Empire in 
the days of its greatest extent, and 
it has a greater variety of tribes and 
peoples than ever acknowledged the 
rule of the Caesars. It is a wilderness 
of peoples, languages, religions and 
customs, full of rich mines of informa- 
tion which await the scholars who 
shall exploit them. 

Let us report briefly the physical fea- 
tures on which depends the distribu- 
tion of the population. The great snow 
range shuts off not only men but winds, 
and forms a barrier against which the 
southern winds of the monsoon beat, 

8i 



Cbe ©pint of tfte 2Dtient 



depositing their moisture. To the east 
of the centre the flanks are protected 
by trackless forests and to the west 
by arid plateaux and deserts, both re- 
gions, east and west, inhabited still 
by tribes of lawless men. Between this 
great range and the oceans to the 
south, enclosed therefore on all sides 
and isolated, is India with, including 
Burmah now, 766,597 square miles, 
12,000 square miles larger than Eu- 
rope if we exclude Russia. The popu- 
lation is 294,361,056. Most of the peo- 
ple live in peasant villages, only two 
per cent being in cities, if we count 
as cities all towns which contain so 
many as 20,000 people, while the vil- 
lages are innumerable. There is, there- 
fore, very little overcrowding in tene- 
ments, for the large cities, Calcutta, 
Bombay, Madras, Hyderabad, &c., are 
so few that their special conditions 
may be overlooked in this rapid sur- 
vey. 

As the people thus distributed in vil- 
82 



3[nDia, its l^eople anP Cugtomg 

lages are farmers, as many as two 
thirds of the entire population being 
returned in the census as agricultur- 
ists, it follows, therefore, that the po- 
pulation has to do with the conditions 
of soil and weather most favorable to 
agriculture. A glance at the map of 
population shows this to be the fact. 
The densest population is in the 
great plain along the Ganges and its 
branches. 

India is dependent upon the periodic 
winds, called monsoons, for its pro- 
sperity. They come from the south 
laden with moisture, and pour down 
the contents of their clouds upon the 
thirsty soil. There are two monsoons, 
with dry seasons intervening. The 
farmer watches the sky anxiously for 
the early and the later rain. 

"August *s here, no sound of thunder, 
Sky is clear and weather fine, 
Wife! 't is time for us to sunder, 
You to your folks, I to mine." 

83 



Cfte ©pint of tbe ©mm 



So sings the peasant, and breaks up 
his family in fear of famine. In the 
season called Swati, the end of Octo- 
ber and early November — 

"One shower in Swati, friend, behold, 
The Kurmi's ear-ring turned to gold," 

SO closely are prosperity and adver- 
sity dependent upon the weather, and 
so surely does prosperity show itself 
in the purchase of adornment for the 
person. 

The rainfall varies greatly. Along the 
Western Ghats, above Bombay, it is 
prodigious, and the rain comes on 
with fury. Houses which are exposed 
to the blast will have neither door nor 
window on the side from which the 
storm comes. A friend, long resident 
in Bombay, told me that within an 
hour of the first fall of rain he had 
seen men swimming in the streets. 
Then by way of contrast, in districts 
shielded by mountains there is as 
little as eight inches of rain in the 
84 



3InDm, iw People anD Customs 

year, with all varieties and degrees of 
moisture between. 

In the middle country, in the Ganges 
valley, the population is more than 400 
to the square mile, with one district 
reported as possessing 1,920 to this 
area, and these are peasants, we must 
remember, dependent upon the sky 
and the soil for their livelihood, and 
living not in cities but in tiny villages. 
On the whole we may lay down the 
rule that population is large where the 
rainfall is great and trustworthy, and 
small where it fails, though this state- 
ment, like all statements about so 
vast a subject, is true only in a gen- 
eral way and with many exceptions. 

While upon this subject we may re- 
fer in passing to the famines. When 
the monsoon fails, as fail it often does, 
then there is trouble at once. The 
peasants have little laid up against a 
dry day, and when, as also happens, 
the monsoon fails for three years in 
succession the effects are terrible. In 

85 



Cbe ©pidt of tfte ©nent 



the past, in populous districts, a quar- 
ter of the people have perished, and 
as recently as 1899-1900 as many as 
4,000,000 persons died from this cause, 
notwithstanding the great efforts by 
the government for their relief. Yet, 
strange as it may seem, the advance 
of population in general is little hin- 
dered by these calamities. The sickly, 
the aged, the unfit die, while the 
strong, young and vigorous survive. 
Hence, in a generation the losses are 
made up and the population seems 
almost more thriving by its terrible 
weeding process. 

Though the population is so dense 
in great sections of the empire, yet 
on the whole India is not overcrowded. 
One fifth of the whole population is 
on one twentieth of the total area, 
two thirds of the people live on one 
quarter of the land, so that three 
quarters are sparsely settled in com- 
parison. And oddly, the people are 
most prosperous in Eastern Bengal, 
86 



3[nDm, itg People anP Cugtomg 

where the population is the most 
dense. With improved means of trans- 
portation and of agriculture, with 
the introduction of manufactures and 
the extension of irrigation, India may 
provide well enough for its natural 
increase for centuries to come, since 
for the decade preceding 1901 the net 
increase was only 1.5 per cent. 

The government is paying attention 
to these needs, having built many 
thousands of miles of railway and 
43,000 miles of irrigation canals, and 
promoted scientific agriculture, the 
cultivation of special products and 
the development of mines and other 
natural resources. 

The people are farmers, as we have 
stated, and this in so great a pro- 
portion that the other occupations are 
small indeed. No other calling repre- 
sents as much as six per cent of the 
population, while commerce claims 
scarcely more than one per cent. Evi- 
dently the people are still in the stage 

87 



Cbe Spirit of tfte ©rient 



of development where wants are few 
and money little needed. We think 
of our highly organized machinery of 
civilization as being natural, and are 
unmindful of the fact that the greater 
part of the race get on very well with- 
out banks, or merchants, or machines, 
or lawyers, or doctors. In India there 
are few men of leisure, only five mil- 
lions entered in the census as such, 
and of these more than four millions 
are common beggars. 

In most countries females outnumber 
males, but in India the reverse is true, 
963 of the former to 1,000 of the latter, 
the discrepancy being caused proba- 
bly by a relative inattention to female 
infants, for though there seems now- 
adays to be little direct infanticide, the 
baby girl is not welcome, and if she die 
there is small regret. 

If she grow up she will not be taught 
to read save in exceptional circum- 
stances. Nor will the boy, as a rule, 
for in all this vast population only one 
88 



3[nDia, its People anp Cugtomg 

man in ten can read and write, and 
only one woman in one hundred and 
forty-four, and this includes the sta- 
tistics for Burmah, where the Bud- 
dhists for centuries have maintained 
schools in the temples for a large pro- 
portion of the people. Probably no 
other civilized people is so ignorant. 
The reasons for it are significant of 
the condition of the masses: life has 
too little outlook; there is no incen- 
tive to the labor involved ; the people 
are too submissive to fate, too content 
with their condition, too hopeless of 
bettering it. So they do not establish 
schools, nor attend them if established. 
It has been maintained that the low- 
caste folk are incapable of intellectual 
training, but like all such statements 
founded upon prejudice, this is mis- 
taken. The schools established by 
missionaries prove that outcastes, low 
castes, and even primitive hill folk 
may all be taught, and that all re- 
spond to effort in their behalf 

89 



Cfie ©pint of tfte ©tiem 



With illiteracy is poverty. But we 
must not judge by our standards. A 
man is as poor as he feels, and his 
feelings are by way of contrast. Caste 
fixes one's position irrevocably, and 
therefore the individual compares him- 
self only with those who are in like 
condition. Hence, for the most part, 
the sting of poverty, self-depreciation, 
is escaped. But the poverty is there, 
nevertheless. 

In a climate like India's, clothes are 
for ornament, and nakedness, more or 
less complete, is the rule. The native 
covers the head instinctively, and 
cares little for the rest of the body. 
Hence, excepting for ornament, 
clothes need not be provided. But 
ornaments must be. Indian civiliza- 
tion is essentially ornate. The great 
man surrounds himself with pomp 
and splendor. I commented adversely 
upon the extravagant railway station 
in Bombay to a friend: "The people 
have to pay for this, and it is too fine; 
90 



3[nDia, it0 l^gople anP Cugtomg 

a simpler building would have an- 
swered every purpose." But he replied: 
"No native would make your criti- 
cism. It is a government railway, and 
in India governments are expected to 
be magnificent!" The same spirit is in 
the common people. When the rain 
comes, 

"The Kurmi's ear-ring turns to gold." 

Asking my friend of the government 
college in Lucknow as to his obser- 
vation of the condition of the people, 
he repHed: "They are prosperous on 
the whole. One sees more jewelry 
worn than when I first came out." 
As clothes are not needed, no more 
is furniture. Again, great houses and 
elaborate establishments are for dis- 
play. The common man needs little. 
His house is merely a shelter. The 
climate for the greater part keeps 
him out of doors, and he seeks only a 
refuge from beasts, snakes, rain and 
the greatest heat. Such requirements 

91 



Cfte Spirit of tfte ©rient 



are readily met, and his hut, which 
to our eyes lacks everything, to his 
thought is complete. 
His food is as simple as his house. 
He will not eat beef, nor any animal 
food, not even an eggy because of re- 
ligious prejudice, which has become 
an invincible repugnance. He often 
uses a leaf for a plate, his fingers for 
knife, fork and spoon, and the ground 
or the floor for a table. Hence ex- 
pense and labor are reduced to the 
lowest terms and the simple life is 
demonstrated as feasible and satis- 
factory. My professorial friend on a 
visit to Calcutta found on his hotel 
bill a charge of a rupee a day for food 
furnished his servant. Whereupon he 
summoned him and asked if he ate a 
rupee a day. The man opened his eyes 
in astonishment and informed his mas- 
ter that not a man in the wide world 
could eat a rupee a day. Whereupon 
my friend told him to buy his own 
food in the bazaar, and he went away 
92 



3[nDia, its People ano Customg 

vastly content with an allowance of 
a quarter of a rupee. But such a ser- 
vant was pampered. The average in- 
come in India of a peasant is of the 
smallest, and on this the family must 
be supported and provision made for 
funerals and marriages. If daily life is 
simple, such occasions are complex. 
Marriage is an affair of dower, and 
the ceremonies are elaborate and pro- 
longed, leaving the great majority of 
parents in hopeless debt. It is no won- 
der that when the rains fail there is 
immediate distress with starvation 
not very far away. 

The outward life is barren and even 
austere in its poverty, so that one is 
tempted to look upon the people as 
savages; but how extraordinary is the 
complexity of the social life. In this 
our life in the United States is in com- 
parison primitive and undeveloped. 
Takemarriage, forexample. Howwon- 
derful the contrast! The fundamental 
rule in India is that the woman may 

93 



Cfte ©pitft of tbe ©tient 



not choose for herself, and the second 
rule is like unto it in rigidity, she may 
not remain unmarried, and only less 
universal, once married she may not 
marry again. None knows precisely 
how the custom of infant marriages 
originated, but it is now something 
fortunately unique, a custom which 
separates the people of India from all 
others, and which bears with it a long 
list of ills. It is compUcated further 
with the rules of caste, a woman may 
marry into a higher caste, but never 
into a lower caste, and with innumer- 
able notions and rites and rules of 
religion, so that the native is bound 
and loses in his family relationships 
the freedom he seemed to gain by the 
simplicity of his surroundings and his 
ability to enjoy dignity without en- 
cumbrances. 
In this cursory survey, all too frag- 
mentary and hasty, of the outward ap- 
pearances of the Indian people, reli- 
gion must be included. We shall have 
94 



3InDia, it0 People ana Customs 

something to say of its spirit later on,, 
and here we can refer only to its outer 
forms. 

The great mass of the people (207,- 
000,000 of them) are classed as Hindu. 
This does not mean that they have the 
same religion, in our sense, for they 
worship many different gods in many 
different ways, but it signifies that 
they acknowledge the supremacy of 
the Brahmans, and accept the caste 
system. Within this great mass are re- 
ligions and sects innumerable, some 
of them hostile, many of them hereti- 
cal, and some of them depraved. The 
Brahmans will minister to any and to 
all, for their own faith is different from 
all the rest and is incommunicable to 
other castes. Hence they accommo- 
date themselves to the weakness and 
ignorance of others, as if a philosophic 
theist among ourselves, thinking it im- 
possible to teach the common folk, and 
recognizing in a condescending way 
our religions as forces for good and the 

95 



Cfie ^pitit of ti)e ©rient 



best that we can comprehend, should 
be ready to minister, for a price, indif- 
ferently in a Quaker meeting, an Epis- 
copal church, a Roman Catholic ca- 
thedral, a Mormon temple or a Chris- 
tian Science congregation, classing 
all together as "Christian," and hold- 
ing his own philosophy as the essen- 
tial truth of which the others are mere 
shadows and outward forms. 
Next to the Hindus in importance 
are the Mohammedans. It is a relief to 
turn from the gaudy and dirty Hindu 
temples to the empty and clean and 
often magnificent mosques. There is 
a solemnity, a simplicity, a solidity, 
which appeals profoundly to our reli- 
gious instincts. No pictures, no sta- 
tues, no altar, no music, but here and 
there a worshipper, with his face turned 
towards Mecca and his knees bent in 
prayer. There are more than 62,000,- 
000 of these worshippers of God, the 
descendants of the conquerors of India 
and their proselytes. The faith con- 
96 



3In0ia, its People anD Customs 



stantly increases, partly because its 
natural growth is more rapid than with 
the population in general, and partly 
because new believers are won from 
members of the lower Hindu castes. 
The religion, however, has not re- 
mained pure. It too is divided into 
sects, and it has been influenced by 
Hinduism in various matters of belief 
and practice so that some Mohamme- 
dans unhesitatingly join in the Hindu 
festivals. 

Third in importance are the peoples 
of primitive religions, who have not 
yet accepted the caste system. But 
they also gradually yield to their sur- 
roundings and become incorporated 
in the prevailing religion. From them 
many have been converted also to 
Christianity, and it is probable that 
still greater gains will be made in the 
future. Besides, there are Jains and 
Buddhists and Parsis and Christians, 
making altogether a wilderness of re- 
ligions, with all varieties of faith, from 

97 



Cfte ©pint of t{)e ©tient 



the most philosophic to the most pu- 
erile and impure. 

As with religion, so with language, 
we have a vast variety with wide dif- 
ferences. Some of the languages can- 
not express at all ideas which are 
among the simplest and most com- 
monplace known to us. Some of them 
are monosyllabic and as simple as 
words communicating thought can be, 
others are highly complex, so polysyl- 
labic that a whole thought is expressed 
in a word, so intricate that a hundred 
forms are given of a single tense of a 
single verb, while still others are re- 
fined, copious in vocabulary, finished 
in structure, and expressive of the pur- 
est-emotions and the noblest thoughts 
of which humanity is capable. Again 
we make a threefold division: we re- 
member that Mongoloid people came 
into India from the northeast. Two 
millions speak languages which be- 
long to the Indo-Chinese family. Then 
next, the earlier inhabitants, driven 
98 



3InDm, tt0 Ipeople anD Customs 

south into the Deccan, speak the lan- 
guages called Dravidian; of them 
there are 60,000,000; while 221,000,000 
people speak languages which are 
classed as Indo-European. 

Our survey would be incomplete in- 
deed were we to leave out caste. As 
we have seen, its acceptance is the ac- 
ceptance of Hinduism, and its influ- 
ence extends even into the Moham- 
medan faith. It is perhaps the most 
characteristic feature of Indian social 
life. How it arose we do not know, 
probably by an exaggeration of influ- 
ences known elsewhere, race pride and 
prejudice, religious aloofness, aristo- 
cratic exclusiveness, and finally trade- 
unionism. Caste is the most compli- 
cated and the most powerful social or- 
ganization known on earth. Let me 
conclude this chapter by quoting at 
length from the Census of India for 
1901: 

"For my own part I have always 
been much impressed by the difficulty 
LOFC. 99 



Cbe^pititoftbe^tient 



of conveying to European readers 
who have no experience of India, even 
an approximate idea of the extraor- 
dinary complexity of the social system 
which is involved in the word caste. 
At the risk of being charged with 
frivolity, I shall therefore venture on 
an illustration, based on one which I 
pubHshedin * Blackwood's Magazine* 
some dozen years ago, of a caste ex- 
pressed in the terms of an EngHsh 
social group. I said then, let us take 
an instance, and in order to avoid the 
fumesof bewilderment that are thrown 
off by uncouth names, let us frame it 
on English lines. Let us imagine the 
great tribe of Smith, the *noun of mul- 
titude,' as a famous headmaster used 
to call it, to be transformed by art 
magic into a caste organized on the 
Indian model, in which all the subtle 
nuances of social merit and demerit 
which * Punch' and the society papers 
love to chronicle should have been 
set and hardened into positive regu- 

100 



3InDia, tt0 People and Customs 

lations affecting the intermarriage of 
families. The caste thus formed would 
trace its origin back to a mythical 
eponymous ancestor, the first Smith, 
who converted the rough stone hatchet 
into the bronze battle-axe, and took 
his name from the * smooth' weapons 
that he wrought for his tribe. Bound 
together by this tie of common de- 
scent, they would recognize as a car- 
dinal doctrine of their community the 
rule that a Smith must marry a Smith, 
and could by no possibility marry a 
Brown, a Jones, or a Robinson. But 
over and above this general canon 
two other modes or principles of 
grouping within the caste would be 
conspicuous. First of all, the entire 
caste of Smith would be split up into 
an indefinite number of * in-marrying' 
clans, based upon all sorts of trivial 
distinctions. Brewing Smiths and bak- 
ing Smiths, hunting Smiths and shoot- 
ing Smiths, temperance Smiths and li- 
censed-victualler Smiths, Smiths with 

lOI 



C6e Spirit of tfte ©tient 



double-barrelled names and hyphens, 
Smiths with double-barrelled names 
without hyphens, conservative Smiths, 
radical Smiths, tinker Smiths, tailor 
Smiths, Smiths of Mercia, Smiths of 
Wessex— all these and all other ima- 
ginable varieties of the tribe Smith 
would be, as it were, crystallized by an 
inexorable law forbidding the mem- 
bers of any of these groups to marry 
beyond the circle marked out by the 
clan name. Thus the Unionist Mr. 
Smith could only marry a Unionist 
Miss Smith and could not think of 
a home-rule damsel; the free-trade 
Smiths would have nothing to say 
to the protectionists; a hyphen Smith 
could only marry a hyphen Smith, and 
so on. Secondly, and this is the point 
which I more especially wish to bring 
out here, running through this end- 
less series of clans we should find an- 
other principle at work breaking up 
each clan into three or four smaller 
groups which form a sort of ascending 

102 



3[nDia, itg People anp Cugtomg 

scale of social distinction. Thus the 
clan of hyphen Smiths, which we take 
to be the cream of caste, — the Smiths 
who have attained to the crowning 
glory of double names securely welded 
together by hyphens,— would be again 
divided into, let me say, Anglican, 
Dissenting and Salvationist hyphen 
Smiths, taking rank in that order. 
Now the rule of this trio of groups 
would be that a man of the highest 
or Anglican order might marry a girl 
of his own group or of the two lower 
groups; that a man of the second or 
Dissenting group might take a Dis- 
senting or Salvationist wife, while a 
Salvationist man would be restricted 
to his own group. A woman, it will 
be observed, could under no circum- 
stances marry down into a group be- 
low her, and it would be thought emi- 
nently desirable for her to marry into 
a higher group. Other things being 
equal, it is clear that two thirds of 
the Anglican girls would get no hus- 

103 



Cf)e %>mit of tfte ©tient 



bands and two thirds of the Salva- 
tionist men no wives. These are some 
of the restrictions which would con- 
trol the process of match-making a- 
mong the Smiths if they were organ- 
ized in a caste of the Indian type. 
There would also be restrictions as 
to food. The different in-marrying 
clans would be precluded from marry- 
ing together, and their possibilities 
of reciprocal entertainment would be 
limited to those products of the con- 
fectioner's shop into the composition 
of which water, the most fatal and 
effective vehicle of ceremonial impu- 
rity, had not entered. Fire purifies, 
water pollutes. It would follow in fact 
that they could eat chocolates and 
other forms of sweetmeats together, 
but could not drink tea or coffee and 
could only partake of ices if they were 
made without water and were served 
on metal not porcelain plates. I am 
sensible of having trenched on the 
limits of official and scientific pro- 
104 



31nDia, m People anP Cugtomg 

priety in attempting to describe an 
ancient and famous institution in un- 
duly vivacious language, but the par- 
allel is as accurate as any parallel 
drawn from the other end of the world 
can well be, and when one wishes to 
convey a vivid idea one cannot afford 
to be over particular as to the terms 
one uses." 



IV 

3InDia, its spirit anD Profilems 




IV 

Slntifa^ ftsi ^pitit anD pvobltm^ 

HE spirit of India is ex- 
pressed most clearly in its 
religion. So its sons tell us, 
and so the impartial stu- 
dent must decide. Some writers set 
forth religion as the cause of the de- 
gradation or advancement of a peo- 
ple, while others teach that it is itself 
the result of the condition of the na- 
tion. There is truth in both views, 
since the condition of a people reacts 
upon its religion and its religion acts 
upon its condition. Without discuss- 
ing the question we point out the clear 
fact that in India the religion is closely 
in accord with all the circumstances 
and conditions of the people's life. 
We may find the widest variety of 
belief and practice, from the dim, con- 
fused, irrational cults of the Dravidian 
peoples to the high philosophy of the 

Brahmans, and in so vast a mass one 

109 



C{)ce>pitttoftt)ea)nent 

finds with difficulty a clue which will 
reduce it to order. How should one de- 
scribe in a few pages Christianity with 
its many divisions, its antagonistic 
sects and teachings? More difficult 
still is it to make intelligible the tan- 
gle of worships which we call the re- 
ligion of India. But, with a clear con- 
sciousness of the imperfection of our 
result, we shall make the attempt. 
At the bottom we find a mass of un- 
systematized, unformulated and un- 
organized beliefs which we should 
call superstitions, fears of mysterious 
influences and powers which cannot 
be defined or described, like the fears 
men feel in passing through a dark 
wood at night, or the sensations of 
children as they look into a deep cave, 
or the feelings which survive in civili- 
zation as to the number thirteen and 
seeing the moon over the left shoulder. 
These feelings are attached to places 
and objects, to a strange tree or a 
peculiar stone or a mysterious ani- 

IIO 



3fnDia, m ©pitit atiD ptoftlcmsf 



mal or an unusual man or woman. 
They are a combination of wonder 
and of fear, and result in a combina- 
tion of rites, some of simple worship, 
the expression of the wonder, and some 
of propitiation, the expression of the 
fear. Especially animals are looked 
upon as divine, snakes and tigers and 
monkeys and many others. Divine, 
did I write? The word has too sacred 
a meaning; unnatural, or supernatu- 
ral, or uncannny, or ghostly would be 
more fitting. Naturally the rites are 
of the simplest, as boys knock wood to 
avert bad luck, a remnant of ancient 
heathenism still surviving among us. 
In this lowest stage there is constant 
change. If, for example, a tree which 
is supposed to be worshipful is cut 
down by some foreigner, nothing is 
thought of the catastrophe, nor is any 
explanation forthcoming as to what 
has become of the mysterious power 
which had been supposed to dwell 
in it. 



Ill 



Cl)e Spirit of tfie SDtient 



As these men worship powerful and 
dreaded animals, so they worship pow- 
erful and dreaded men living and 
dead. Before the grave of an English- 
man who had been much feared the 
simple-minded natives made offerings, 
cigars and brandy and the like, sup- 
posing that after death he could be 
propitiated by gifts of the articles he 
was addicted to in life. Stranger yet, 
a story is told of an official who be- 
came a god while still alive. His wor- 
shippers would grovel at his feet and 
offer gifts, while he cursed them and 
declared himself no god. But his af- 
firmations did not affect their faith; 
a god he was and a god he must re- 
main. 

Above this condition, where, let me 
repeat, the terms god and divine are 
too exalted for the objects of worship, 
we find an infinite series of grada- 
tions. There are local gods with his- 
tories and priests and elaborate cults, 
and there are universal gods, who 

112 



3[nDia, jt0 Spirit anD Ptoftlemis 



may be described nearly in the terms 
we use to describe the Christianas 
God. There are in connection with 
these various deities all forms of rites: 
some of them grossly indecent, some 
refined and pure; some shockingly 
cruel and others impressive and well 
ordered; some of them wildly extrav- 
agant; others simple and plain. For 
as we have a continent in extent and 
a continent in the number of peoples, 
so we have more than a continental 
variety in religion. But still, exclud- 
ing only the Mohammedans, the 
Parsis, the Sikhs and the Dravidian 
peoples not yet reclaimed, all are 
ranked as Hindus. How can we ex- 
plain such an anomaly? How can 
we reconcile oneness of faith with a 
multiplicity of contradictory beliefs? 
Well, it is not a oneness of faith. Hin- 
duism, as we have explained, means 
merely the mass of those who accept 
the supremacy of the Brahmans and 
the caste system. Within those broad 

"3 



Cfte ©pint of tbe ©rient 



limits every one may believe and wor- 
ship as he will. 

For the religion of India in its high- 
est development is the worship of the 
"Ultimate and the Absolute," as Mr. 
Okakura told us in our second chapter. 
Can we get that meaning clearly be- 
fore us? In spite of its abstract nature, 
let us try. The Ultimate and the Ab- 
solute represent the reality which is 
from everlasting to everlasting, which 
never changes, and which is infinite, 
that is, limitless. Therefore it is the 
opposite of all which we can see or 
touch or define. All these things pass 
away. Sunshine and shadow, day and 
night, leaves and flowers, winter and 
summer, the trees, the hills themselves, 
the earth, the sun, the universe, all be- 
gan to be, all change, all pass away, 
all therefore are the very opposite of 
the Ultimate, which is changeless and 
forever the same. How shall we define 
it? Perhaps by negatives: it is not the 
fire, the rain, the sun, the earth, man's 
114 



31nDia, ite Spirit anD Ptofilem^ 



mind, the universe. But how shall we 
define it more closely? We cannot, for 
to define it is to limit it. 
I was once in the market-place of 
a city in the Deccan, listening to a 
Christian Brahman preach the gospel. 
A student from a college in Ceylon 
translated his words for me in excel- 
lent English. As the preacher spoke 
of the nature of God, infinite, all good, 
all wise, all loving, a Hindu in the 
congregation began vehemently to 
contradict. The dispute became so hot 
that it was proposed to leave the 
street and, entering a garden near at 
hand, to sit down under the trees and 
have the discussion to an end. The sub- 
stance of it was this : The Hindu asked 
the Christian as follows: "You declare 
God to be infinite?" **Yes." "What is 
the meaning of infinite'?" "It means 
^limitless.'" "And what part of speech 
is 'good'?" "'Good'is an adjective." 
"And what is the grammatical func- 
tion of an adjective?" "To limit a 

"5 



Cbe Spirit of tl)e©uent 



noun." "How then do you apply an ad- 
jective to God, calling him good, and 
thus limiting the limitless?" 

By this philosophy, therefore, God 
cannot be described, no adjective ap- 
plies to him, and we can neither preach 
about him nor urge any to worship 
him. How then can we have anything 
to do with him? In the conversation 
described above the Christian Brah- 
man took his turn in asking ques- 
tions: "You believe in God as infi- 
nite?" "Yes, I so believe." "And you 
say that no adjective can be applied to 
him?" "I so affirm." "How then can 
you distinguish him from nothing?" 
That becomes the question, how can 
you distinguish him from nothing? 
You cannot by logic or discourse, but 
you may by long processes of contem- 
plation or of asceticism bring yourself 
to a place where you will understand. 
Then it will appear to you that God is 
the only reality, and that everything 
which men regard as real is an illu- 
1x6 



3InDia, its spirit auD Pro&lem0 

sion,— earth, and men, and sky, and 
devils, and gods, and life, and death, 
and my own soul, all are such stuff 
as dreams, having no real existence, 
for that which is is the Infinite. My 
own existence is illusion like all the 
rest, excepting as I come to identify 
myself with the changeless, timeless, 
limitless, indescribable Ultimate and 
Absolute. 

This, then, is the height of religion, 
but manifestly it is unattainable for 
most people. Men with families, en- 
gaged in the struggle for the lives of 
those they love, believe that wife and 
children and parents and neighbors 
and their own selves are real. It is only 
by withdrawal from all these that a 
man may convince himself at last af- 
ter years of rigid discipline that no- 
thing exists but God. So the common 
people may be left to their delusions, 
for they cannot be led to this true wor- 
ship of the Ultimate and the Absolute. 
Hence, too, the Brahman who has at- 

117 



C{)eS)pmtoftf)effl)tient 



tained salvation may with condescen- 
sion assist at the celebration of any 
form of service, since all are alike true 
or untrue to him. 

To the common people such a man 
is an incomprehensible mystery, and 
because incomprehensible he is there- 
fore divine, for in India the divine is 
nothing else than the mysterious, the 
incomprehensible and the powerful. 
Mystery and power, these under a 
vast variety of forms are the divinities 
of all the people, of the dullest pea- 
sant as of the highest scholar; and 
as the philosophic Brahman delights 
in such disputes as I have described 
above, where the mind at last is "in 
endless mazes lost," so the common 
man loves his own special brand of 
the incomprehensible. He looks up 
with awe to the men above him and 
worships them. At the great Mela at 
Allahabad, in the triangle formed by 
the junction of the Ganges and the 
Jumna, I have seen lines of filthy as- 
ii8 



31nDia, it0 Spirit ano Pto&lems 

cetics, naked, repulsive, with foul 
and matted hair, followed by com- 
panies of men and women worship- 
ping them and believing in their su- 
perior and divine holiness. Only let us 
remember that "holiness" does not 
mean of necessity uprightness, but 
attainment of supernatural compre- 
hension and power. 

Naturally magic flourishes. It is sup- 
posed that man can attain power over 
the gods by his rites, and stories are 
told of elaborate plans formed by the 
gods to prevent saints from continu- 
ing in holiness because of the fear that 
the saint would become greater than 
the gods themselves and compel them 
to do his bidding. Perhaps the most 
popular of all the sacred books of India 
contains a long story of the creatio;i 
of a particularly attractive and sen- 
sual universe for the corruption of a 
saint who had successfully resisted all 
the temptations of our world. 
As the men of the highest intelHgence 

119 



Cf)e Spirit of tbe ©tient 



feel themselves forbidden to teach the 
common people, they are left to their 
debasing superstitions and to a con- 
fused medley of beliefs. Superstitions 
born of yesterday are mingled with 
traditions three thousand years old; 
relatively high and pure teachings of 
God and morality will be found close 
beside fantastic and immoral cults. 
Any one may found any religion he 
pleases, and new forms of belief are 
set forth continuously. But after the 
founder dies and the enthusiasm of 
the first generation dies, the sect grad- 
ually gives up its peculiarities and 
sinks back into the ordinary fashions 
of the mass of the population. Within 
this complicated mass of beliefs and 
rites we may find most of the distinc- 
tions and differences familiar to our- 
selves though quaintly expressed : thus 
believers in a rigid predestination, a 
salvation by grace, are designated as 
the kitten sect, since they are carried 
to salvation as a cat carries its kit- 

120 



3[nDia, its %mit anP Ptoftlemg 

ten, by the nape of the neck; while 
believers in free will and salvation 
through our own efforts are the mon- 
key sect, who are saved as is the mon- 
key who clings tight with his two arms 
around his mother's neck. There are 
great denominations which believe in 
a Creator who formed all things, and 
one which teaches that all things flow 
forth from God by an eternal necessity. 
But while there are resemblances so 
are there differences. Christians be- 
lieve in the immortality of the soul, as 
do the Hindus, but the contrast here 
is striking. Christians believe that God 
created man, and that there was a 
time when we were not. Hindus be- 
lieve that the soul is uncreated, and 
that it has already existed forever as 
it will continue to live forever. Chris- 
tians suppose that at death the soul 
enters "an eternal state" where it will 
continue forever, but Hindus think of 
death merely as an incident in the long 
chain of endless changes which go on 

121 



CJ)e@pititoftt)e©mnt 



without beginning or end, unless in- 
deed in rare instances some one attain 
salvation. Salvation to the Christian 
means heaven, but to the educated 
Hindu it means absorption in the De- 
ity and the loss of our individual exist- 
ence. Save as it finds this salvation, 
the soul goes on and on forever, and 
exists in a vast variety of forms —on 
earth, in heaven, in hell, as god, devil, 
insect, animal, man, having all expe- 
riences and undergoing every possible 
form of happiness and woe, though 
on the whole suffering predominates. 
Thus a series of stories about Buddha 
very popular in Ceylon represents him 
as having adventures during many 
lives, and mentions him as living in the 
following existences: ascetic eighty- 
three times; a monarch fifty-eight 
times; the divinity of a tree forty-three 
times; a religious teacher twenty-six 
times; a courtier, a Brahman, a prince, 
each twenty-four times; a nobleman 
twenty-three times; a learned man 

122 




^4 



r 

r 



"^ 



^>,^ 



■i I ,r' 



1 




31nDia, m ©pint anD profilemiS 

twenty-two times; the god Sekra 
twenty times; an ape eight times; a 
merchant thirteen times; a rich man 
twelve times; a deer, a Hon, each ten 
times; the bird Hansa eight times; a 
snipe, an elephant, each six times; a 
fowl, a slave, a golden eagle, each five 
times ; a horse, a bull, a Maha Brahma, 
a peacock, a serpent, each four times; 
a potter, an outcast, a guana, each 
three times; a fish, an elephant driver, 
a rat, a jackal, a cow, a woodpecker, a 
thief, a pig, each two times; a dog, a 
curer of snake bites, a gambler, a ma- 
son, a smith, a devil dancer, a scholar, 
a silversmith, a carpenter, a water- 
fowl, a frog, a hare, a cock, a kite, a 
jungle-fowl, a kindura, each once. Of 
course this list makes only a begin- 
ning of Buddha's innumerable lives, 
giving only those of which incidents 
have been handed down. He was never 
born as less than a snipe, nor in one of 
the greater hells, nor as a female. 
The Indian imagination delights in 

123 



Cbe ©pirit of tfie ©tient 



these extravagances. Thus for a mea- 
sure of time : take a cube of ten miles' 
measurement, composed of the hard- 
est rock, let the woman who has the 
softest touch of all the women in the 
world once in a hundred years touch it 
once with her lightest touch, using the 
most delicate fabric known. Beyond 
all doubt each touch will make some 
impression, and when by successive 
touches the whole cube is worn away 
to nothingness you have your unit, 
with which you can measure periods 
which are really long! 
We may ask by what is our future 
existence determined, what is the rule 
and order of our fate? And the answer 
is karma. As the Christian believes in 
a God who rules and by whose right- 
eous judgment men are rewarded or 
punished, so the Hindu believes in an 
invariable law (karma) of cause and ef- 
fect. Every cause must have an effect 
and every effect must have a cause. 
Thus, our present life is an effect: it 
124 



3[nDia, its g)pitit anp ptofilemig 

began to be so many years ago, and it 
is happy or miserable. The cause must 
be sought in some former life. Because 
we then were virtuous we now are 
happy, or because we then were sinful 
we now suffer. Our past deeds work 
out their recompense now. In like fash- 
ion our lives are causes; the deeds we 
do shall live after us and produce a fu- 
ture in accord with them. Once happy 
now because of a good life in the past, 
we may enter the next existence in a 
state of misery because of our present 
evil deeds. All we do in life is balanced 
at our death and the net result carried 
to a new account, or, rather, embodied 
in a new form of life. Thus, the net 
outcome of a life may have the value 
of a flea, then a flea will embody it; or 
a god, when a god will enshrine it. 
When now the balance is used up, 
whether it be only sufficient for the life 
of a flea or ample for the existence of 
a god in the highest heaven, or so aw- 
ful that it means ages in the lowest 

125 



Cfte Spirit of tbe^ticiit 



hell, the condition changes, flea, god 
or devil dies and a new existence be- 
gins once more. Thus one may go at 
once from heaven to hell, or from some 
lower form to a higher, though the 
transitions are usually not extreme, 
and it is a toilsome task for one who 
has fallen to recover place and op- 
portunity again. Thus are explained 
the inequalities in the present world : 
Some good men are miserable because 
of evil done in former life; they will 
get their reward by and by. Some evil 
men are prosperous because of virtue 
in the former world, and their punish- 
ment for the present offences as surely 
awaits them in the world to come. 
Thus the universe shapes itself into 
"three worlds," past, present and to 
come, instead of, as with the Chris- 
tians, the present and the future. The 
result of this teaching is twofold: first, 
submit to fate; your present lot is the 
result of former deeds; and second, 
know that existence is misery. Hap- 
126 



3InDia, it0 Spirit anP Ptofalems 

piness may endure for a season, but 
surely evil comes as night follows the 
day. Life, therefore, is wearisome, and 
the highest gospel is the teaching of 
an escape from our individual exist- 
ence. 

We have written of goodness as 
holiness, but in the development of 
religion in India religion counts for 
more than ethics. Forms and cere- 
monies, prayers and formulae, espe- 
cially in unknown tongues, the minis- 
tration of priests and the maintenance 
of ceremonial cleanliness, are the main 
things. A woman touched by a little 
child in an early morning hour cried 
out, "Poor me!" for she was obHged 
to begin over again the long course 
of ceremonies almost completed and 
necessary before she could undertake 
her household tasks. A traveller who 
bought an article of food from a vend- 
er at a railway station and helped him- 
self to his purchase had to take the 
whole stock, as his touch had polluted 

127 



C6e ©pitit of tfte ©tient 



it. The ritual varies with the different 
cults, but the same underlying ideas 
obtain with all. One form of holiness 
is right conduct, but it is not on an 
equality with ceremony as an approach 
to God. 

One may well dwell upon these re- 
ligious forms and ideas, for they seem 
especially to represent the spirit of 
India, like a mental photograph of the 
whole. As we cannot think of our friend 
without imagining his body, or of it 
save as a symbol of him, as we may 
begin with either the outward or the 
inward, so interwoven are they in his 
unity of person, so it is with this peo- 
ple. Let us then review both sides 
briefly. 

A vast continent, with varying scen- 
eries, races, climates and conditions, 
enclosed by great mountains on the 
north and wide oceans on the other 
sides, it is a world in itself, yet a world 
unlike the rest of the globe, with spe- 
cial characteristics of its own. Its tem- 
128 



3[nDia, itg Spirit anP Pro61em0 

perature is excessive, its dependence 
upon periodic rains extreme, its fer- 
tility great. Its climate makes man at 
once submissive and irritable, deadens 
sustained effort and kills ambition. 
In it he comes to an early maturity, 
attains his measure soon, and rests 
in a middle age which is content with 
small success. Nature seems supreme. 
Its fertility makes great labor unne- 
cessary, and also overpowers man so 
that he is helpless before beast and 
jungle, famine and pestilence, — a land 
where vegetation is grandiose and 
over-luxuriant, so that humanity is in- 
significant notwithstanding its mighty 
numbers. 

Here man early reached a high de- 
gree of civilization. He conquered the 
land, but never thoroughly. He wor- 
ships beasts and serpents, and is de- 
voured by them. He needs but little, 
but has never learned to make the lit- 
tle certain so that it can be depended 
upon, but learns to submit to forces 

129 



Cfte ©pitit of tbe ©tient 



stronger than himself, accepting the 
inevitable. The population is formed 
layer on layer, ancient peoples who 
have made no advance since the dawn 
of civilization and other races and peo- 
ples superimposed, each with its own 
status and its own degree of advance- 
ment. Its history is the story of suc- 
cessive invasions, of prodigal luxury 
for the conquerors and their certain 
debasement until ready for the coming 
of some new virile people who repeat 
the same experience; of a land where 
the lower accept their estate and wor- 
ship men who are more highly placed; 
where dreams of equality and liberty 
have never come, and where the over- 
hanging and overpowering belief is in 
fate ; where that which is is that which 
shall be, and where there is no desire 
for any new thing under the sun; 
where none the less man has reflected 
profoundly, considering the deepest 
problems of Hfe and destiny and being; 
where high social position depends 
130 



3InDia, itisi Spirit anD Ptotilems 



not upon wealth, nor power, nor intel- 
ligence, but on birth; where the ideal 
is not success, nor comfort, nor fame, 
nor wealth, nor rank, but the mastery 
of all outer circumstances and the su- 
premacy of the spirit; where asceti- 
cism, philosophy and earthly indiffer- 
ence to the world are the attainments 
most sought. "My pundit," said my 
friend in Bombay, "would not leave 
his seat and go to the window to see 
the greatest spectacle on earth." 
When now we ask ourselves for the 
specific problems for Indiaand fortheir 
solution, we are inclined to say these 
things are too great for us ; let us leave 
them to the slow working of natural 
laws and to the direction of the Divine 
Spirit, ourselves meanwhile content 
with the different fate allotted to us. 
But such an answer would be in har- 
mony with the spirit of India and not 
with the spirit of the West, which 
seeks to master nature and to make 
natural forces our servants. But pro- 

131 



Cfte %9ixit of tfte €)rient 



test as we may against fatalistic con- 
tent we are certain that the man is 
doomed who attempts, in Kipling's 
phrase, to "hustle the East." True, 
remedies can be found, but they will 
be slow in their effects, and India can 
solve the problems which have been 
caused by millenniums of existence 
only by centuries of endeavor. Here 
will be no instance of a people born 
in a day or of a regeneration by mi- 
raculous transformation. Here reform 
contends against hoary traditions, a 
society bound by custom which is 
stronger than life, and the forces of 
material nature. 
Manifestly we begin with the last 
named, nature. There is no question 
in India of an American social condi- 
tion, of villages with wide streets and 
trim gardens and pleasant cottages. 
We cannot anticipate a time when the 
laboring man shall earn a dollar and 
a half a day, and when the man of 
moderate circumstances may antici- 
132 



JlnDia, itisi Spirit anD Iptoblems 

pate a thousand a year. We shall not 
look forward to a future when our ma- 
chinery of civilization, our houses and 
furniture and clothing and food shall 
be introduced. East shall continue to 
be East, India will not become Amer- 
ica, and in outward conditions there 
shall continue to be a great gulf fixed 
between the two. Similarity in these 
things is not even desirable. The Hin- 
du has his own standards, and they are 
in accordance with his needs. He has 
lessons for us, as he shows how self- 
respect can be maintained on the mer- 
est fraction of that which we regard 
as essential. It would indeed be a ca- 
lamity were our notions to prevail ev- 
erywhere. Surely his is not after all 
the lowlier ideal, to be rid of impedi- 
menta, and to seek highest satisfac- 
tion not in the abundance of things 
he possesses but in life itself There 
are times when we may well envy the 
simplicity and plainness of life in the 
great peninsula. 

133 



Cbe Spirit of tfte ©mm 



But admitting all this and insisting 
upon it, still the people may be deliv- 
ered from actual want, from the pov- 
erty which does not know what the 
satisfaction of hunger means, and from 
the recurrent calamities which deci- 
mate whole sections. Better agricul- 
tural methods, irrigation on a still 
larger scale, the cultivation of regions 
which are scantily peopled, the ex- 
ploitation of natural resources which 
are still untouched, all this and more 
can be accomplished, so that there 
may be an increase for ordinary life 
and provision for years of scarcity. 
This would require progress in wealth, 
but at a moderate pace, with life con- 
tinuing upon the ancient lines. 

The problems of government are 
scarcely less arduous. It has always 
been far too expensive, and so it con- 
tinues in our day. The British govern- 
ment has given unexampled peace to 
the people, and justice. It is incorrup- 
tible and impartial. It studies the 
134 



3Inom, m Spirit anD Ptofilemg 



needs of the people and it seeks to 
further their interests. In the second 
chapter we quoted words of high ap- 
proval from native writers. But there 
is another side. The government is 
terribly expensive, and it is foreign. 
British standards of life cannot be 
lowered to the native level, so that sal- 
aries must be paid which will main- 
tain the English ways and which will 
tempt competent men to a life of exile. 
Hence salaries are very high, with am- 
ple allowances and pensions and pay- 
ments to widows and orphans. The 
home government exacts no tribute, 
yet an immense amount of money goes 
year by year to England, sent home by 
English officials in payment for Eng- 
lish luxuries and necessities. There is 
an army of civil servants of foreign 
birth, and regiments of troops, who 
are supported by the native treasury. 
A visit to the cantonments of a crack 
British regiment astonished me at its 
provision for the needs of the men, ev- 

135 



CfteSpmtoftfteaDtient 



ery three soldiers having a native ser- 
vant. Any other policy would be sui- 
cidal; the foreigner cannot live as at 
home, but the native pays the bills. 

Besides, the foreign occupation 
crushes the native spirit. Every native 
gives way to the Anglo-Saxon as to 
his conqueror. White men constitute 
a caste by themselves, and the conse- 
quent servility on the part of the men 
who own the land is degrading to both 
ruled and ruler. In such circumstances 
a vigorous national life is impossible. 
We cannot conceive of India as com- 
ing forward to play a great part in the 
future of the world, as making great 
contributionsof its own to our science, 
arts and literature, while its children 
are so humiliated. 

The solution would seem to be an in- 
creasing measure of self-government. 
This is demanded by a growing pub- 
lic sentiment, and is awarded in a de- 
gree by the employment of natives in 
the civil and military service, yet only 
136 



3InDia, its ©pint anD Pro&lem0 



in a small degree, for the positions of 
large pay and influence are reserved 
for white men. None else, it is argued, 
are capable. Foreign writers complain 
that even as subordinates native offi- 
cials are arrogant and corrupt and in- 
efficient. Doubtless there are grounds 
for the accusation, but none the less 
India can have a true future only as 
the ideal is kept steadily in view, and 
as the British government recognizes 
its position as one of trust, holding it 
not for glory nor for gain but for the 
interests of the people and for their 
advancement. The young men must 
be taught honesty and patriotism. 
There is little yet of either. How could 
it be otherwise with the story of the 
past before us and its influence all per- 
vading among the people? Patriotism 
has been impossible, and now it is only 
slowly kindled; but without it there 
can be neither true dignity nor true re- 
sponsibility. The same great princi- 
ples obtain throughout the world in 

137 



Cbe@>pmtoftbe©nent 



society and in physics. Government 
must be by the people and for the peo- 
ple; not, it is true, on the pattern ev- 
erywhere of England or of the United 
States, —as well expect English coun- 
try houses and American villages ev- 
erywhere, —but adapted to varying cir- 
cumstances and needs. England has 
proved herself worthy to rule. She only 
has made a success of empires across 
the seas. She only has sent forth suc- 
cessions of noble and self-sacrificing 
men to serve her in foreign lands. But 
to all the rest she must add the high- 
est gift of all, the capacity and the 
right of self-government. It will be her 
highest praise if she can make her rule 
unnecessary and bring at last the day 
when India shall take its place among 
independent empires. 

But that is in the dim future. Imme- 
diately there are more pressing needs. 
We have seen how small is the per- 
centage of educated men and how in- 
finitesimal the number of women who 
138 



3[nDia, it0 Spirit anP Pto&Iemg 

can read. The problem of education is 
almost the greatest at the present 
time— so great that it is baffling and 
yet imperative. Thus far the govern- 
ment has confined its attention to the 
training of the few. Young men are 
taught that they may be fitted for the 
public service. Entrance to public life 
is the motive which sends the bright- 
est sons of well-to-do families to the 
colleges. They are taught the studies 
which belong to our own institutions, 
and acquit themselves, as we should 
expect, with credit. The larger prob- 
lem of the masses is almost untouched. 
Yet while it is unsolved India will con- 
tinue as it is, the prey to superstition 
and tradition and disaster. Only en- 
lightenment can break the chains 
which bind the people, and make pos- 
sible for them a glimpse into the 
higher world. Mission schools suc- 
ceed with the few; it remains for the 
government to undertake the problem 
for the mass. How shall this be accom- 

139 



Cbeg)pititoft6effl)rient 

plished, whence shall come the funds, 
the teachers, and how the desire shall 
be awakened where it does not now 
exist, are questions calling at once 
for the wisest statesmanship and the 
broadest philanthropy. Such an edu- 
cation, we need not add, should not be 
modelled upon our own. The people of 
India have their own difficulties and 
they should be taught to meet them. 
There are already noble efforts in pro- 
gress for such training as will fit them 
for the struggle for existence, making 
them better farmers, more expert me- 
chanics, and more competent workers 
in their various occupations. Educa- 
tion thus answers the two questions 
already discussed— how the people 
shall be prepared for self-government 
and how they shall be relieved from the 
burden of crushing poverty. Science 
is given us for the mastery of nature, 
to make man at once intelligent and 
free. Adapted to India it will accom- 
plish these two tasks. Man will no 
140 



3[nDia, itt %mt anD Pto&Iems 

longer be the prey of superstitions, 
surrounded by imaginary foes, and he 
will be armed against his real antago- 
nists, learning how to live to best ad- 
vantage and to highest purpose. Edu- 
cation must be the means to all higher 
ends. 

Religion we have left to the last. It 
is the greatest problem of all and the 
most pressing. We are far from advo- 
cating the introduction of a new sec- 
tarianism, but the most sympathetic 
review of conditions in India must re- 
veal the need for a new gospel. Very 
much which goes under the head of our 
own religion is indeed unnecessary. 
Its introduction would only bring fresh 
confusion. The Hindus will not accept 
Christianity as bound up with our civ- 
ilization, for that, as we have seen, is 
not suited to their needs and is repug- 
nant to their taste. Nor will they ac- 
cept our philosophical doctrines. In 
metaphysics they are past masters, 
and they are not prepared to sit at the 

141 



Cfte Spirit of tbe ©tient 



feet of Western scholars. But fortu- 
nately, in our day Christianity is re- 
turning to its first simplicity, and in 
the teaching of Christ there is neither 
East nor West, but the gospel for a 
common humanity. 

Indian religion is a complex mass 
of cult and philosophy. Christianity 
should be taught in its simplest form, 
as the Fatherhood of God and the 
brotherhood of man. As the first it 
will free the people from their bondage 
to fear, from their superstitions, from 
their^ reliance upon priests and cere- 
monies, and will give each man his 
value as in vital relationship to God. 
The second will break down caste and 
exclusiveness, and teach men not to 
call each other common or unclean 
but to recognize their common and 
mutual relationship and duties. Caste 
isolates race from race, class from 
class, guild from guild, family from 
family. Philosophical religion com- 
pletes the isolation by separating the 
142 



3InDia, its %mit anD Problems 

individual and making him seek sal- 
vation for himself in meditation or by 
asceticism. Christianity breaks all this 
down, making service of others, even 
the outcastes, the highest worship, 
and bringing all men together as 
brothers. It is this inner regeneration 
which India chiefly needs. With it ac- 
complished, all that is best will follow, 
and we shall go there then, not from 
idle curiosity, but to learn the lessons 
it can teach us, of simplicity and spir- 
ituality and the freedom of the soul 
from the trammels of the outer world. 



V 

Cfiina, its people anD Customs 



V 

€}iim, ftjs i^eopie anD Cujstomjs 




|ET us think of the United 
States east of the Missis- 
sippi, with Texas, Missouri, 
Arkansas and Iowa added, 
filled with more than three hundred 
millions of inhabitants, and we can 
form a picture of China. This territory 
is divided into eighteen provinces, and 
its chief physical features are three 
great rivers, with plains, mountain 
ranges, hills in endless variety, and 
boundless resources. Besides, to the 
northeast is Manchuria, to the north 
Mongolia, and to the west and north- 
west Tibet, Hi and Kokonor. The 
whole is under Chinese control, one 
third of Asia, one tenth of the habi- 
table globe, constituting the greatest 
independent empire the world has 
ever known in population and in dura- 
tion. 

Its chief characteristic is isolation. 

147 



Cbe ©pittt of tfte ©rient 



It is bounded by mountain ranges, 
deserts, pathless wastes and the broad 
sea. From the dawn of history— and 
this conventional phrase here means 
a really immemorial antiquity— the 
empire has been not only free and 
independent but self-contained and 
self-reliant. Unlike India it has never 
known an invasion which has modi- 
fied the customs or the ideas of the 
people, for although foreigners have 
repeatedly conquered it, they have 
been powerless to influence the life of 
the people, but have themselves sub- 
mitted to ways and manners which 
are stronger than themost triumphant 
arms. 
Not only has the empire thus main- 
tained its solidarity and its traditions, 
but it has preserved and strengthened 
its pride. Could we conceive of the 
Mississippi Valley in isolation, its 
people having for thousands of years 
no vital connection with any other 
civilized folk, rude Indian tribes or 
148 



Cftma, it^ People anp Cugtomg 

some semi-civilized peoples consti- 
tuting the world outside its own boun- 
daries, we can understand how a pride 
ofracemightbecultivatedwhich would 
regard the indigenous type of civili- 
zation as the only enlightenment, and 
all the rest of the world as barbarous. 
So in fact has it been with China. Its 
own civilization is so ancient that its 
origin is wholly lost. The people in 
their own thought have always been 
enlightened. No great teachers ever 
came to them from other lands, no 
adventurous travellers brought back 
from beyond the mountains or the seas 
the treasures of foreign parts. Save 
for a few men who penetrated India, 
and for the coming of the Buddhist 
religion, no debt is acknowledged to 
any but to themselves. Thus the em- 
pire becomes "The Middle Kingdom," 
the middle of the earth, the centre of 
enlightenment, surrounded with outer 
darkness and a fringe of savages. We 
must dwell upon this feature and em- 

149 



Cfie ©pitit of tbe ©mm 



phasize it, for it is the key to our ex- 
planation at once of the institutions 
and character of the people and of the 
problems with which modern states- 
manship, science, philanthropy and 
missions must deal. 

Thus understood, we shall perceive 
that the Chinese are not inherently 
different from the rest of mankind. 
For far less reasons the Greeks looked 
down upon all peoples as upon barba- 
rians and thought it a virtue to hate un- 
reservedly the foreign nature. So pro- 
vincials the world over have thought 
themselves the elect of heaven. Com- 
mon as all this is, and familiar from 
countless instances known to our- 
selves, even among Americans with 
all our opportunities for knowledge of 
other locaUties, in China provincialism 
has been made racial by the situation 
of the country and by its wide separa- 
tion from other favored sections of the 
globe. 

Ten centuries ago China was un- 
150 



Cbina, itg People anP Customg 

doubtedly the most civilized portion 
of the world, and three thousand years 
ago only Egypt and possibly India 
could have competed with it. But 
while the others have changed in va- 
rious ways, China has remained the 
same. Think of some of its achieve- 
ments! The greatest structure ever 
reared by human hands is the great 
wall. It is fifteen hundred miles long; 
without break it crosses valleys, climbs 
mountains, clambers up the face of pre- 
cipices, and bounds an empire on the 
north. It was built before the formation 
of the Roman Empire, while it was still 
a republic, and while Christianity was 
still unborn, in 204 B. C. Or, to take a 
modern instance, while the enlight- 
ened peoples of Europe were still en- 
gaged with the Crusades, before gun- 
powder or the printing-press had been 
invented, China built the great canal, 
almost seven hundred years ago. 
Our imagination fails us with such 
numbers. A thousand years of Chinese 

151 



Cfte Spirit of tbe ©rient 



history makes no impression upon us, 
for they stand for no events and are 
represented to our thought by nothing 
distinguished in character or litera- 
ture. But to the scholar all is different. 
He learns to fill out the centuries and 
gains at least some faint idea of their 
magnitude. He comes to understand 
that it has not been quite a monoto- 
nous sameness, but that there have 
been wise and unwise rulers, success- 
ful and inefficient dynasties, periods 
of refinement with flourishing litera- 
ture and art and periods of terrible 
and desolating warfare. In China, too, 
he comes to understand there have 
been great sovereigns, great novelists, 
great essayists, great historians, great 
artists. To begin to master all that 
has been there achieved is beyond the 
powers of any man, and the most that 
an industrious student can hope to do 
is to learn more or less thoroughly 
the events of some single period, or 
to trace the development of some 
152 



Cbina, iw People anD Customs 

particular line of science or of art. 
Chinese encyclopaedias there are, in 
hundreds of volumes, and histories 
which seem interminalDle, and diction- 
aries which are terrifying by reason 
of their size, and compendiums, and 
short editions innumerable, them- 
selves seemingly long enough for the 
most industrious. 

But leaving this, let us look over the 
country and note some of its acquired 
characteristics. First of all perhaps is 
the kind of cultivation. Man here has 
developed a form of agriculture which 
is akin to gardening, minute, thorough, 
utilizing every spot and space, so that 
the impression is not of fields and 
meadows and pastures but of little 
plots as carefully tended as a flower- 
box for a window. There are no flocks 
nor herds nor carriages nor pretty 
farmhouses. Villages there are in- 
numerable. At a distance they are 
often attractive, but they will not bear 
a closer inspection. The streets are 

153 



Cfte ©pirit of tbe ©rient 



very narrow, seldom over ten feet in 
width, the houses are low, small and 
miserable, and there seems a total 
lack of order, cleanliness and, of course, 
of elegance. There are no parks nor 
pleasure-grounds nor attractive sub- 
urbs. The village begins and ends 
suddenly, and is as cramped for space 
as are the cities. There are no trees 
nor vines nor (not to dwell too long) 
comforts without the houses or within. 
Outside the villages are the garden- 
like fields, and roads stretching from 
village to village in all directions. 
There are great roads, some of them 
paved, but all of them, like the smaller 
ways, in horrible repair. This is true 
also of the streets in the cities. Peking 
is distinguished for the width of its 
streets and for their badness. It is said 
that after a rain pedestrians have per- 
ished in them, so deep are the holes 
and so fathomless the filth, while in 
dry seasons the dust is almost as ter- 
rible. 

154 



Cftina, itg People anP Cugtomg 

The traveller in China is repelled by 
this view even more than by his so- 
journ in India. He finds the adjective 
** Asiatic" applicable to both and with 
derogatory significance. This is per- 
haps deepened as he remembers the 
imbecility of the people in their con- 
tact with the foreign powers. India has 
been repeatedly conquered, and China 
has proved defenceless against a few 
thousands of men. The same disorder 
and lack of system and contentment 
with obsolete methods are found in 
both war and peace, so that our visitor 
upon this brief inspection decides that 
China is grotesque and impossible. 

It is not easy to get beyond these sur- 
face opinions. It is true there is no- 
thing which corresponds to the caste 
of India nor to the vast variety of race 
and religion which makes the pro- 
blems there seem so intricate. The peo- 
ple of China are remarkably homoge- 
neous. It is true there are differences 
of race descent among them, but as 

155 



Cfte ©pitit of tfte ©tiem 



immigrants from different nations be- 
come in a generation or two indistin- 
guishable in the United States, losing 
their differences in a common likeness, 
so it is in China. There, however, the 
differences in language are great, dia- 
lects differing so widely that the na- 
tives of one district cannot understand 
the natives of another; but neverthe- 
less the homogeneity is greater than 
the diversity, for the written language 
in all sections is the same, so that all 
Chinamen study the same books in the 
same way, write the same styles of let- 
ters in the same words, and possess 
in general the same literary, philoso- 
phical and religious ideas. Further, 
the homogeneity is increased by the 
lack of hereditary distinctions in rank. 
There are, it is true, noble families and 
other families distinguished for centu- 
ries in various ways, but these distinc- 
tions do not separate their possessors 
from the people, and confer no privi- 
leges. Theoretically, China is the most 
156 



Cbma, it0 People anD Customs 

democratic of empires, a place where 
all men are equal. Theoretically, the 
son of the poorest peasant is on an 
equality in all respects with the son 
of the richest man, and as a matter 
of fact many of the greatest men in 
China have come from a humble par- 
entage and from poverty. Thus the 
natural and artificial barriers which 
isolate in India are wanting. 
This constitutes the first great dif- 
ference between the two: India is 
essentially aristocratic, while China 
both theoretically and practically is 
democratic. Why, then, cannot the 
foreigner easily and successfully learn 
more of the people than appears upon 
the surface ? There are reasons enough. 
One is that the foreigner is often too 
contemptuous to take the trouble. 
The view already outHned is sufficient 
and he abides with it. Another reason 
is that a real acquaintance requires 
great perseverance and persistence. 
It is not only that the language must 

157 



Cfte ©pitit oftbt ©riem 



be learned,— and this is one of the 
severest tasks ever set man,— but an 
intricate system of etiquette and an 
extended literature and history. It is 
only the unusually gifted foreigner 
who can overcome these barriers and 
enter into real intercourse, as it can 
be achieved on no easier terms, and 
therefore the number of foreigners 
whose opinion is really valuable is 
very small. We must remember that 
the Chinaman looks down upon us 
and esteems us barbarians. Recalling 
our own contempt for him, remember- 
ing his ill-smelling streets, his horrible 
roads, his comfortless dwellings and 
his many eccentric way s, that he should 
look down upon Europeans and Ameri- 
cans seems simply one more absurdity. 
But after all it is not absurd, though 
it is undoubtedly mistaken. 

Let us take up the two items named, 

language and etiquette, and try to 

understand why the foreigner is a 

barbarian to the Chinaman. First, the 

158 




1 ^^\T^' 



vJj 



Cftina, itg People anp Cugtomg 

language: this is the subject of life- 
long study to the educated man. The 
little boy begins the endless task. He 
is taught profound respect for his 
teacher, and is informed that the 
great sages, Confucius and Mencius, 
before whose tablets he bows on en- 
tering school, were teachers. His 
teacher is paid Httle in money but 
greatly in respect, and he may punish 
his stupid scholars at pleasure, though 
their parents would not think of flog- 
ging them. With this early reverence 
for the teacher is joined a reverence 
for books, so that not a printed page, 
or even a scrap with printing upon it, 
shall be treated with indignity. Thus 
from the start letters are given supreme 
place. Nor is this merely rhetorical ex- 
travagance. 

The boy in school sees every one 
giving place to scholars and gradu- 
ates, the presence of a man with a 
degree in a village giving it distinc- 
tion. Rich merchants pay large prices 

159 



Cfie^pititoftbefiDtient 



for the honor of a degree, though they 
know that the fact of its purchase de- 
stroys most of its value. Not only is 
social precedence given to scholar- 
ship, but there are legal immunities 
as well. The man who has passed the 
Imperial Examinations has rights be- 
fore the law possessed by none others, 
and more than this, he only is eligible 
to any position in the government. Not 
rank nor riches but scholarship gives 
what men everywhere covet,— pow- 
er, precedence, privilege,— and conse- 
quently in every village, with rare ex- 
ceptions, is a school. Rich men hire pri- 
vate tutors for their boys, and every- 
where there are signs of the predomi- 
nance of learning. 

It is true the results are not satis- 
factory from our point of view. The 
methods of instruction are slow, in- 
efficient and wasteful. Only the bright- 
est succeed, and multitudes of pupils 
gain nothing from their arduous toil. 
For example, students are required 
i6o 



China, it0 People anD Customs 

to commit an immense amount of 
literature to memory, spending years 
on the task, without one word of ex- 
planation. As if our primary student 
should be asked to commit the clas- 
sics— say Homer and Virgil — from be- 
ginning to end without any transla- 
tion or any explanation of any diffi- 
culty. Then, when at last after years 
the task is ended, all is begun again 
with translation and commentary, 
the translation and commentary being 
likewise committed to memory. Were 
our students required thus to commit 
all the Greek and Latin poets, with 
the classical prose authors in the same 
languages, to memory, with, in ad- 
dition, minute comments by stand- 
ard commentators, and be prepared 
on examination to begin at any point 
and write the text with the required 
commentary, and then to add a poem 
in the classic style and an essay ab- 
solutely correct according to the form 
and matter of the ancients, they would 

i6i 



CfteSpititoftfte^riem 



have a task comparable to that set 
the Chinese students. 

In consequence, some scholars fail 
in the initial task; they cannot remain 
in school long enough to commit their 
authors: others are "half learned," 
that is, they know their authors by 
heart, but do not in the least appre- 
hend the meaning, and above these 
are all kinds and conditions of ac- 
quirements. Thus those who fall out 
by the way have nothing of real value 
to show for their expenditure of time 
and labor. But the Chinese regard all 
this as natural, for why should not the 
fit survive in examinations as in na- 
ture, and the weak and unfit fall out 
by the wayside? Besides, there are 
competent scholars enough, and we 
need not be anxious to increase their 
number. 

Nor are the results with those who 
succeed altogether beneficial. In all the 
long course of study absolute submis- 
sion to authority is insisted on. As the 
162 



Cbma, its People anD Customs 

teacher is honored next to the parent, 
as the printed page is regarded with 
honor, so in still higher degree are 
the classic books venerated. All the 
honor which Christians have given to 
the Bible is lavished upon the Chinese 
"Sacred Books." In America there are 
thousands who treat the Bible with 
scant respect, but in China there is lit- 
erally none who does not honor the 
writings of Confucius. Thus a religious 
sentiment gathers around these books, 
and they are supposed to contain the 
fundamental truth of the universe it- 
self and the laws which must govern 
mankind. Hewho obeys them is happy, 
he who disobeys them is a wretch. The 
welfare of the empire is dependent 
upon conformity to the teachings, and 
even nature, sky and earth and sea 
are affected by man*s obedience or dis- 
obedience to them. Moreover, all lit- 
erature—essays, poems, history— is 
filled with allusions to these sacred 
writings, and even the common talk of 

163 



./. 



Cfte %pmt of tftc flDticnt 

educated men cannot be understood 
unless we, like them, are familiar with 
their whole range. 

We can understand now why the or- 
dinary foreigner appears like a bar- 
barian. He knows nothing of these 
things. Even if he "knows the lan- 
guage" it is only some spoken dialect, 
and even if he can read the Chinese 
characters he does not attain to liter- 
ary excellence. Thus, judged by one 
standard, the only standard known, he 
fails abjectly. And the Chinaman does 
not value our acquirements in the 
least. He knows nothing of Greek and 
Latin and Hebrew, nor of modern lan- 
guages nor modern science; hence a 
foreigner may be a marvel in all these, 
and produces no effect at all because 
he is ignorant of Chinese literature and 
the Sacred Books. 

Let us repeat, this learning is the sign 
of the gentleman, it constitutes aris- 
tocracy, and the foreigner does not 
possess it. Why, then, should he be ad- 
164 



Cbina, itg People auD Cugtomg 

mitted to the society of gentlemen? 
They do not care for his conversation, 
nor he for theirs, hence they remain 
apart. But do none break through the 
barrier? Some dig through it. A few 
distinguished foreigners have so far 
mastered the task that they have been 
welcome guests with scholars and 
have met high-placed graduates on an 
equality. But in the nature of the case 
the instances are few. Therefore for- 
eign judgments on China are not often 
of great value. What should we think 
of men who, travelling through the 
United States and finding our food 
unpalatable and our manners disa- 
greeable, should superciliously write 
about us on such superficial inspec- 
tion? Or, without knowing our lan- 
guage or reading a word of the Bible 
or Shakespeare or of any of our au- 
thors, and without meeting any of our 
leading citizens, because our country 
roads are undeniably bad, our railway 
cars overheated in winter, our habit 

165 



Cbe ®pint of tfte ©tiem 



of public expectoration disgusting, 
should condemn us and all our ways? 
On a par with such judgments are our 
own when we despise this vast people, 
so large a fraction of the human race, 
because they do not conform to our 
standards nor come up to our modern 
requirements. 
But if the whole literary training of 
the Chinaman secludes him from for- 
eign friendship, so does his etiquette. 
Probably with all the world etiquette 
has more influence than morals in de- 
termining likings. The etiquette is on 
the surface so that every one must be 
affected by it, and if one violates the 
code in which we are trained he is a 
boor to us. Now the Chinaman is 
trained in etiquette as he is trained 
in letters. Confucius put propriety 
among the first virtues, and indeed 
it is a moral accomplishment to say 
and do the right thing at the right 
time. But with Chinese minuteness 
and Chinese patience and Chinese re- 
i66 



Cftma, itg l^eople anP Customs 

gard for tradition a system has grown 
up which excels all competitors for 
intricacy. The Chinese child is trained 
to it from infancy and it becomes a 
second nature, so that the humblest 
does not violate ordinary rules of po- 
liteness, while the scholar is as profi- 
cient in etiquette as in literature. How, 
then, shall aforeigner become a friend? 
He does not know how to enter a 
room nor how to leave it; he does not 
understand how to drink his tea nor 
what is the meaning of the cup given 
him as he begins his call ; he does not 
so much as know when he is grossly 
insulted, and he insults his host in fla- 
grant fashion, in all unconsciousness. 
It is as if some guest should come to 
an elaborate dinner given by one of us 
in his behalf and should put his muddy 
feet on the dining table, sitting with 
his hat on and his coat off. We would 
not invite him a second time, nor will 
the Chinaman, as he finds his foreign 
guest lacking in the first rudiments of 

167 



Cfte S>pint of tbe ©mm 



propriety. So again the Chinaman is 
justified, at least to this extent, that 
we can understand his conduct and 
recognize that his treatment of us is 
not essentially different from our con- 
duct in like circumstances. 

It is difficult to show how minute and 
all-embracing the rules of conduct are. 
For example, there is the well-known 
story of the American who was em- 
ployed in the University of Japan in 
the old days when Chinese etiquette 
was still maintained in that empire. 
After a time he was visited by a solemn 
delegation of the authorities, who, af- 
ter much circumlocution, asked him 
what they had done to injure his feel- 
ings. He replied that they had done 
nothing, but they took his reply onlyas 
polite evasion, and insisted. As really 
his feelings had not been hurt by any- 
thing, he was in perplexity and began 
at last to ask them what he had done 
to indicate his annoyance, whereupon 
it came out that he had appeared (be- 
i68 



Cftina, its People anp Cugtomg 

ing really a man somewhat absent- 
minded and indifferent to his dress) 
several times in his recitation-room 
with his shoe-strings unfastened, and 
the authorities had supposed this a 
quiet way of indicating that his feel- 
ings were injured. Or, to take an oppo- 
site instance: an American long years 
since went to China as a missionary. 
He took up his residence with a group 
of students, and learned at once the lan- 
guage and native customs. Many years 
after he rendered the Chinese govern- 
ment signal service and was made a 
mandarin. When I knew him he lived 
in Japan, and he told me that in his 
long residence in China he had met 
only courtesy, because versed in their 
ways he rendered courtesy where cour- 
tesy was due. When a new Chinese 
minister came to Tokyo the American 
would call upon him. At the outer gate 
he sent in his ordinary American visit- 
ing-card. The response came back, 
"His Excellency is not at home." So 

169 



Cfte %mit of tfte ©tient 



the American advanced to the inner 
gate and presented an elaborate visit- 
ing-card in Chinese, and again the re- 
sponse came, "Not at home." Then he 
advanced to the door of the residence 
and presented his great official visit- 
ing-card inscribed with all his titles, 
and the minister was found at home 
and prepared to do him all honor. To 
have presented his official card in the 
first instance would have been pre- 
sumptuous. He must appear in a pri- 
vate and modest capacity, but for the 
minister to have received him in such 
form would have been to do him a dis- 
courtesy. The successive responses 
were really in the nature of a command 
to come up higher and be received in 
a style befitting my friend's rank and 
distinguished services. Naturally, few 
foreigners have the time, the patience 
or the adaptability to learn so elabo- 
rate a code and one so adapted to all 
the contingencies of a strange life. Eti- 
quette in China is little less elaborate 
170 



Cftina, its People anD Customs 

and perplexing than is religious rite in 
India. In both we have illustrations of 
the methods in which men bind them- 
selves with artificial codes and make 
life burdensome by their own tradi- 
tions. However, there comes a time 
when even such a code becomes a sec- 
ond nature, and its lack is felt as if 
something essential were missing. 
So again we have found that first ap- 
pearances are deceitful. China looked 
to us systemless, untidy, without ele- 
gance and repulsive, but already we 
have gained a certain respect for the 
people. It is a great accomplishment 
to make scholarship supreme and to 
honor letters beyond rank or wealth, 
and this not by a class of students 
but literally by all the people— by mer- 
chants, officials and even coolies no 
less than by students and authors. 
Then, too, it is no mean accomplish- 
ment to get a code of etiquette recog- 
nized everywhere so that every one 
may know the right thing to do and 

171 



Cbe ©pint of tbe ©riem 



say at the right time. Such a people 
surely do not merit contempt, but on 
the contrary may rightly lay claim to 
a high degree of civilization. Nor can 
we altogether wonder that our West- 
ern civilization appears to them not 
attractive. As the Hindu supposes that 
Occidentals are given to the comforts 
of material civilization while he seeks 
the joys of religion, so the Chinaman 
fancies that we give first place to 
wealth and to force, while he honors 
literature and morals, including eti- 
quette in morals. 

Nor has his regard for morality been 
merely outward. Long before the 
Christian era a Chinese emperor de- 
clared, "The Empire is peace !" and on 
the whole the declaration is true. 
Peace is the ideal of the Chinaman, 
and war an abhorrent interruption of 
the course of nature, like a typhoon or 
an earthquake. We must have sol- 
diers, as we must have policemen, but 
they are not held in distinguished es- 
172 



Cftma, m Peopte anP Cugtomg 

teem. A general is by no means the 
equal of a subordinate civil official, 
and the latter always and everywhere 
takes precedence. To be put into the 
military service, even though with 
several steps of advancement, is a de- 
gradation and a punishment for a mem- 
ber of the civil service. War is a crime, 
and only because there are criminals 
must there be soldiers, is the Chinese 
principle, a principle which surely is 
nearer Christian teaching than like 
Christian practice. 
War in China has been terrible. For 
the most part it has been either the 
savage incursion of barbarian hordes, 
without mercy or reason, or it has 
been the outbreak of rebellion when 
the people have risen in mobs and 
have killed and slain without discrimi- 
nation or limit. Hence in both in- 
stances war appears as a species of 
insanity, as indeed it is. Whereas the 
Chinaman loves peace, when he is 
stirred to war he is at once savagely 

173 



Cbe ©pittt of tbe ©rfent 



cruel and an arrant coward. In a mob, 
with some village or town at his mercy, 
he will commit deeds of the most hor- 
rible description, while as an individ- 
ual, or on occasions when heroism is 
required, he proves lacking in courage. 
This, however, is in part at least be- 
cause of his training. It is said that 
when the French attacked the Chinese 
fleet at Foochow in 1884, the Chinese 
commander remembered that he had 
an invitation to dinner on shore and 
left his ship to keep his engagement. 
On the other hand. General Gordon 
(the famous "Chinese" Gordon), com- 
mander of the "ever victorious army," 
declared that the Chinese needed only 
good leaders and they would be excel- 
lent soldiers, an opinion borne out by 
the testimony of many competent ob- 
servers. But however that may be, an 
empire has claims upon our admiration 
which for three thousand years has 
honored peace and has given war its 
true place as an alien element to be 
174 



Cbina, its People anD Customs 

banished from the thoughts and the 
lives of reasonable men. 
Again, we shall not permit our first 
view of China to blind us to another 
admirable quality in the people, their 
persistent industry. We sometimes 
hear of the birth, youth, maturity and 
old age of nations. But here is a peo- 
ple which was born before history be- 
gan, and is still in full virility. As we 
have noted, they built the great wall 
two thousand years ago, and they are 
still capable of prolonged and persist- 
ent exertion and of the greatest en- 
terprises; indeed, under competent di- 
rection, there is nothing which they 
may not attempt. All China is filled 
with patient industry. Beggars there 
are, as everywhere, but idleness is not 
held in honor. It is not exalted in vir- 
tue into holiness as with the ascetics 
of India, for the practical ideal of 
China is plodding, continuous toil. 
Much of it is misdirected, it is true. As 
in India, conservatism has hindered 

175 



Cfte ©pitit of tbe ©mm 



improvements and has added terrible 
burdens to the task of gaining a live- 
lihood. Almost everything is done at 
the hardest, for man has only his un- 
assisted strength, using cattle spar- 
ingly, and is not master yet of steam 
and electricity. His toil procures for 
him the simplest of livings, but there- 
with he is content, loving his home, 
his family, his neighborhood, and tak- 
ing his lot as it is given him. With him 
too, as with the natives of India, the 
universe is a vast complex organism, 
and he is an infinitesimal portion of it. 
He must move with its currents, and 
where he is there shall he abide. 
Have we not modified somewhat our 
judgment? This untidy, inelegant, 
comfortless land is not so uninviting 
after all, unless we be indeed barba- 
rians and put material satisfaction as 
first and last the only essential. A peo- 
ple which honors literature and mor- 
als and lives under an elaborate code 
of etiquette, which glorifies peace and 
176 



Cfaina, its l^eople anP Cugtomg 

despises war, which rejoices in indus- 
try and is content with its lot, must 
merit something better than contempt 
or an amused smile at their strange- 
ness. "Why," once asked the distin- 
guished Professor Tholock of an Am- 
erican student, "did the Lord make so 
many Chinamen and so few Germans ? " 
I do not know what answer was given, 
but the truth doubtless is because He 
wanted them. They too have their place 
on the earth, which does not belong to 
Germans nor to Americans, and their 
claims upon esteem and admiration 
and respect. They too are near our Fa- 
ther, and are His children with their 
inheritance in His love and favor. 



VI 

C6ma,its ©pmt anD Ptoblem0 




VI 

€iiim, ftjs ^pivit anti i^rolJlemjS 

HE Chinese social organism 
is at once the most primitive 
and the most democratic in 
civilized states. Yet its de- 
mocracy is not according to our type. 
Our system is based upon the value 
of the individual, but the Chinese unit 
is the family. This modifies the whole 
structure. With us, when a man at- 
tains maturity he establishes, if he 
will, an independent household, or if 
he will he continues single. In China 
he does neither the one nor the other, 
for marriage is not a matter of his will 
but is arranged for him. Very likely 
he was betrothed in infancy or early 
childhood, and although the Hindu 
system of early marriages does not ex- 
ist in China, long before the boy is his 
own master he may have a wife. In- 
deed he is never his own master, for 
he is born into a network of relations, 

i8i 



Cfte^piritoftfaeiaDnem 



and continues in them all his days. 
When he marries he brings his wife 
home, or rather she is brought to him, 
to his father's house, where she be- 
comes a kind of servant to his mother. 
The bride's relation to her mother-in- 
law is far more important to her than 
is her relationship to her husband, for 
her subjection continues so long as his 
mother lives, and she comes to a place 
of importance only when at last her 
son brings a daughter home. After a 
time the family comes to constitute 
a kind of clan, and the home grows 
into a village, so that there are very 
many villages where all the inhabitants 
have the same family name. When the 
immediate family connection has so 
broadened that the sense of kindred 
is lost, the village remembers still its 
origin and remains a little self-govern- 
ing state. 

The father of a family has very large 
powers and very large responsibili- 
ties. As the family is the unit, when 
182 



Cftina, it0 ©pint auD Problems 

one member suffers all suffer with it. 
If one commits a crime, the entire fa- 
mily may be punished, and even if 
the actual culprit escape, his parents 
will suffer in his stead, while if he 
is caught, they too may be punished 
with him, according to the gravity of 
the offence. We must go back to the 
stories in the Pentateuch and in Jo- 
shua for familiar descriptions of a sim- 
ilar state of things. As the family thus 
suffers with all its members, so does 
it share in the prosperity of each. No 
one is rich for himself If, for example, 
a son gains the coveted degree which 
admits him to the public service, and 
obtains in time a lucrative post, a 
swarm of relatives will follow him and 
surround him. He must provide for 
them all, making nepotism a matter of 
course. Nor does he ever become pre- 
cisely his own master, even though 
he grow to be the head of the family, for 
he is still bound by custom and tradi- 
tion and public opinion. These com- 

183 



Cl)eS)pmtPftbe©tient 



bine to form a force which can be de- 
fied only by the boldest and the most 
strong-willed. Especially must the son 
honor his parents. This is the central 
commandment, and it is enforced by 
endless stories of obedient sons, some 
of which would seem to indicate, mis- 
takenly however, that the Chinese 
have no sense of humor. For example, 
it is gravely related of one good boy 
that he still dressed in baby clothes 
when a grown man, and when asked 
the reason for his course replied that 
he could not think of dressing like a 
man lest he should cause his parents 
to grieve over their advancing years! 
In many places memorials are set up 
by the authorities in honor of a son or 
a daughter who has been an example 
of "great filial obedience." 
Next to these duties to one's parents, 
which exceed all others in importance, 
come one's duties to his brothers, and 
then to his wife, and finally to his 
friends. But the wife occupies in the 
184 




< 

^ i 



Cfiina, its %mit anD Profilems 

code a subordinate position, and she 
has any real position only as the mo- 
ther of the children who are to con- 
tinue the family line. For the extinc- 
tion of the family is a calamity of the 
greatest magnitude, since in it the 
Chinaman lives and moves and has his 
being. He who is cut off from it is an 
outcaste and a vagabond. There is no 
new circle which he can enter, since 
all are constructed on the same plan 
and have no opening for strangers and 
foreigners, save possibly as infrequent 
guests. The economical position is 
none the less serious for the man with- 
out a home: all occupations are filled, 
and there are no vacancies. The Chi- 
nese are past masters in the art of 
combination, so that our labor unions 
seem very amateurish in comparison. 
Thus so long as a man moves along 
with the system all is well, but woe to 
him if he steps out. 
Then, in addition, all the associations 
which hallow life are concentrated 

185 



Cfie Spirit of tbe ©tient 



about the family. It is thought of as a 
corporate whole to which belong not 
only the living but the dead, and these 
are so connected that the suffering or 
the welfare of the living affects the 
dead, and if one break the family line 
all the ancestors are in distress. To 
worship or do reverence before the 
ancestral tablet is far more than all 
other religion, so that the man who 
has separated from his family has lost 
his gods as well as his living relatives. 
A young man once came to my house 
in Tokyo in great grief He had been 
for years in New York, where he had 
prospered until at last he could return 
to his home in the neighborhood of 
Canton. He had become a Christian, 
but as soon as he entered his mother's 
house she took him to the ancestral 
tablets and asked him to worship them. 
He refused, and she in wrath and hor- 
ror drove him from her door. It was 
almost night, but not a person in the 
village would take him in or give him 
i86 



Cbma, it0 Spirit and Pto61em0 

a mouthful of food, and he was obliged 
to go many miles to a village where 
his people were wholly unknown, be- 
fore he could find a refuge. When I 
saw him he was on his return to Amer- 
ica, since residence in China had be- 
come impossible for him. 

The Chinaman, therefore, is not natu- 
rally an emigrant. All his ties and af- 
fections keep him in the locality where 
he was born. He knows nothing and 
cares nothing for the world beyond. 
He does not wish to travel through 
China and still less to foreign lands. It 
is only stern necessity which drives so 
many thousands to expatriate them- 
selves, and this is only for a time and 
with the fixed resolve to return home 
when circumstances shall favor them. 

In the villages the elders rule. They 
may be in fact the old men, or they 
may be young men of vigor and enter- 
prise. Sometimes they are elected, and 
sometimes they simply take the of- 
fices. A multitude of affairs come be- 

187 



C!)e@pftttoftfte©tient 



fore them, for the community is only 
a larger family and it settles its own 
matters. It is only when a feud breaks 
out between adjacent villages, or when 
in the community matters become un- 
controllable, that the officers of the law 
are called in. But so long as there are 
no riots, and the taxes are paid with 
reasonable promptness, the Imperial 
Government has nothing to do in the 
premises. It is therefore looked upon 
as a last resort, and with reason, for 
when a matter is referred to the courts 
for settlement it is in desperation, 
when the appellant is ready for ruin, 
since in all probability, whatever the 
rights, both parties will be stripped of 
their possessions and punished. 

It follows that there is nothing like 
loyalty. Again and again invading ar- 
mieshavebeen astonished at thereadi- 
ness of the people to serve them. If the 
pay were good and prompt the people 
showed a strange impartiality. They 
have no patriotism for China and no 
i88 



Cftma, its Spirit ano Pro6Iemg 

affection for the Emperor, who is as a 
god far away in Peking, inaccessible 
and unimaginable. During the recent 
wars missionaries have reported the 
total lack of interest in the news, the 
peasant not caring who fought or who 
won, so long as the conflict was at a 
distance from his fields. 

If we, however, were to live in the 
capital, the government would assume 
high importance, or if we were edu- 
cated and had passed our examina- 
tions. Without legislature or supreme 
court the power centres in the Em- 
peror, but he is not an autocrat, for he 
must rule according to precedent and, 
above all, in accordance with the code 
handed down from antiquity under the 
name of Confucius. The theory is that 
he rules by his virtue, standing as re- 
presentative of the people before Hea- 
ven and responsible to it. Nor is he 
above human censure, since there are 
specially appointed officials whose 
duty it is to reprimand him when he 

189 



Ct)e Spirit of tf)eg)nent 

wanders from the straight and narrow 
way. Difficult as is this duty, it has 
been faithfully performed times innu- 
merable by upright and truth-loving 
men. I quote from "The Middle King- 
dom:" 

"The celebrated Sung, who was ap- 
pointed commissioner to accompany 
Lord Macartney, once remonstrated 
with the Emperor Kiakinguponhisat- 
tachment to play-actors and to strong 
drink, which degraded him in the eyes 
of his people and incapacitated him 
from performing his duties. The Em- 
peror, highly irritated, called him to 
his presence, and on his confessing to 
the authorship of the memorial, asked 
him what punishment he deserved. 
He answered, * Quartering.' He was 
told to select some other: *Let me be 
beheaded;* and on a third command, 
he chose to be strangled. He was then 
ordered to retire, and the next day the 
Emperor appointed him governor in 
Hi, thus acknowledging his rectitude, 
190 



Cftina, itg ^yitit anp ptoftlemg 

though unable to bear his censure." 
The story illustrates the old Chinese 
saying, "The position of the Censor 
is more dangerous than is that of the 
foremost spearman in battle." The 
Emperor sometimes publicly assumes 
responsibility for the evils in his do- 
minion, in accordance with the word 
of Confucius, "If you hear of evil ex- 
amine self." 

Below the Emperor are the great de- 
partments of state,— the Cabinet, the 
General Council of State, the Board 
of Civil Office, the Board of Punish- 
ments, the Board of Works, the Colo- 
nial Office, the Censorate, the Court of 
Transmission (a means of communi- 
cation with provincial authorities), the 
Court of Judicature and Revision, and 
the Imperial Academy. These various 
bodies are intrusted with the control 
of a great body of officials, and through 
them with the entire empire. But all 
must rule in accordance with the great 
code which is supposed to cover all 

191 



Cf)e ©pftit of tfte SDtient 



contingencies. It is in six sections: 
general, fiscal, ritual, military, crim- 
inal and Public Works. It is de- 
scribed as "on the whole reasonable 
and common sense, though not indi- 
cating a very high social develop- 
ment." It fits the conditions of the 
people, and the result is that there is 
little discontent and no thought of re- 
formation or revolution. The system 
is as the laws of nature, and the peo- 
ple do not complain of it. The only dis- 
satisfaction is with the officials and 
their fashion of enforcement of the 
laws. 
Doubtless there are thousands of 
honest officials, and they must not be 
judged by our standards, for "graft" 
is a part of the system. So it is in all 
departments of life. The new-comer 
from America perhaps rebels. He will 
not submit to a system where there 
are not only tips constantly but where 
every one takes a "squeeze," every- 
thing which he buys paying its per- 
192 



Cftina, it^ ©pint anD Profilems 



centage to his household. But by and 
by he recognizes his powerlessness. 
Even if he make his purchases him- 
self, his servants take toll when they 
are delivered at his door, and even if 
he carry them home, in one way or an- 
other the place of purchase is discov- 
ered, and the seller hands over the 
commission. With such a system per- 
vading life it is not wonderful that 
official circles make all that the "busi- 
ness will bear." The governor of a pro- 
vince is paid a salary which is ab- 
surdly small, not more perhaps than 
he pays his cook, and yet after a few 
years he retires rich, and besides, has 
made the fortune of a multitude of re- 
lations. All this within a degree is 
looked upon as a matter of course, and 
it is only when the graft becomes un- 
usually large, so that there is an in- 
crease in the burdens of the people, 
that there is trouble. The patience of 
the common people is very great, but 
it has its limits. As in private affairs 

193 



C6e ^pitft ottht ©tient 



there comes a time when an individual 
is ready to be ruined himself if only he 
may injure his adversary and so goes 
to law, there is also a time when the 
people throw all patience and caution 
and prudence to the winds and rise in 
frantic mobs to protest against mis- 
government, and then beware! The 
Chinaman is the most matter-of-fact, 
practical, phlegmatic of individuals, 
until he explodes, and then he seems 
crazed, irresponsible, cruel, danger- 
ous, ready to go all lengths and to de- 
stroy himself with his enemies. Right- 
fully, considering the character of the 
people, the governors are required to 
maintain order, it being taken for 
granted that they are to blame if dis- 
order arises. This too is in accord with 
the Confucian teaching, which sup- 
poses that if the rulers are virtuous 
the people will be notxmly happy but 
good, and hence that if the people are 
rebellious the rulers must be to blame. 
Nor am I aware that the teaching has 
194 



Cbina, its ^pitit anD Problems 

been disproved by facts in the long 
course of Chinese history. 

The social morality is equal to that 
of Europe. It is true that the idea of 
the family is different. A man may 
have not only a wife but concubines, 
and in some instances, if, for example, 
his wife has no children, he must have 
them. But if we condemn this as im- 
moral we must also condemn Abra- 
ham, Isaac and Jacob, to say nothing 
of David and Solomon. It is another 
social organism, accepted and main- 
tained with all propriety. Indeed, as 
we have seen, the Chinese are beyond 
all others sticklers for propriety. They 
regard us as immoral because men 
and women meet freely and even are 
seen on the street together, whereas 
Chinese etiquette forbids brothers and 
sisters to so much as touch hands af- 
ter an early age. 

Perhaps the most outstanding fea- 
ture of Chinese life, next to its indus- 
try, is its monotony and vacuity. Years 

195 



itht^mit of tbt^timt 



ago I met a very wealthy Chinaman 
on a steamer going from Hong-Kong 
to Penang, where was his home. He 
was a mandarin, having purchased his 
degree as he told me without hesita- 
tion, and was consul in Penang. He 
had been making his yearly visit to 
his parents in Canton. I asked why he 
did not return to Canton and make it 
his permanent home. He replied, "I 
cannot afford to," and upon an ex- 
pression of astonishment he went on: 
"All the officials know that I am rich, 
and if I were to return I should be 
obliged to give most of my wealth to 
them. Were I to refuse they would 
arrest me on any charge, and I could 
not escape from prison without satis- 
fying their demands. You know that 
the Chinese call the prison ^Hell,' and 
it deserves the name. Besides, in Can- 
ton there is nothing to do. In Penang 
I keep my carriage and drive every 
day, I have my club and all I wish in 
the way of amusement. In Canton 
196 



Cbina, its ©pitit anD l^roblems 

there is nothing which attracts me." 
His story illustrates at once the way of 
the officials and the dulness of life. If 
he could find nothing to do, still less can 
the common people find amusement. 
Their lives of toil have few pleasures; 
theatres, story-telling, Punch and Judy 
shows, weddings, funerals, feasts, the 
fortnight holiday at New Year's, about 
exhaust the list. And these are infre- 
quent and uncertain save the last. 
Then the whole empire makes holi- 
day. All debts are supposed to be paid 
by the end of the previous twelfth- 
month, or if not paid, escaped for an- 
other year (though a story is told of 
one creditor who sought his debtor 
in broad dayUght on New Year's Day 
with the light of a lantern, thus keep- 
ing up the fiction that it was the night 
before, as our congressmen turn back 
the hands of the clock to lengthen, 
like Joshuas, the length of the natural 
day). So with free minds the people 
give themselves over to pleasure, es- 

197 



Cfte Spirit of tbeSDriem 



pecially to feasting and to gambling. 
The latter is the national vice, recog- 
nized as such, but at this festive sea- 
son even the most virtuous women in- 
dulge themselves in its excitement. 
But for the most part it is on the small- 
est scale, for the people are very poor. 
There are thousands, tens of thou- 
sands of families whose total posses- 
sions are not worth five dollars each, 
and multitudes more who do not know 
whence the next meal is to come. Al- 
most in desperation, the distinction 
between mine and thine is effaced, and 
the people who are in possession are 
obliged to watch their crops, their 
fruit, their food in their larders, all 
that they have with constant care. 

With monotony and poverty com- 
bi^ied, human life has little value even 
fof its owner. One is tempted to think 
the Chinese made of a special nervous, 
or nerveless, tissue. Certain it is that 
all the discomfort of their villages and 
homes does not annoy them, nor are 
198 



Cbina, m Spirit anD ptotJlem0 

they ambitious of anything better. 
Foreign surgeons perform operations 
upon them without anaesthetics which 
no Occidental could so endure. A mis- 
sionary friend illustrated from his ex- 
perience the curious insensibility to 
discomfort. Returning half sick from a 
trip in the interior he put up in the 
village inn, a series of cells surround- 
ing a courtyard. No sooner was he 
settled in his place than in came a 
man with a donkey and stopped just 
outside his room ; and soon a second 
and a third and a fourth, then men with 
other beasts, all tired and excited and 
noisy, but not a Chinaman protested 
or indeed cared. Not until after mid- 
night did the hubbub subside, and then 
shortly, long before dawn, a man came 
with a number of hogs and proceeded 
to brand them one by one! Only a for- 
eigner with high-strung nerves would 
object to such a resting-place. 

Even the Japanese are astonished at 
the Chinese lack of nerves. A spy was 

199 



Cbe Spirit of tbe ©rient 



taken early in the war, a Chinaman, 
and was condemned to be beheaded. 
He listened to the sentence with stolid 
composure, and asked for something 
to eat on his way to the execution 
ground. He was given a rice-ball 
wrapped in a leaf, and he ate the food 
with keen relish, taking the pains at 
last to pick off the kernels which ad- 
hered to the leaf. Then he threw away 
the leaf and bowed his head to the exe- 
cutioner's sword. 

Or take another instance. In a ty- 
phoon the Chinese stokers on a 
steamer quit work and threw them- 
selves on the floor. Neither curses, 
kicks nor blows could induce them to 
stir from their places. Finally the chief 
officer drew his revolver and threat- 
eiied to shoot if they did not return to 
work. They still refused, and he shot 
one of them, and threatened to shoot 
again. They still refused to work and 
he shot again. But still they refused 
to work, and he put up his pistol, re- 

200 



€bim, its Spirit anP l^rotilemg 

cognizing the impossibility of arous- 
ing them. They fully expected the loss 
of the ship, and why should they spend 
the last hour of life at work, or what 
did it matter whether they went down 
with the boat or were killed by the 
chief officer? The cabin passengers 
stoked the furnaces and saved the 
ship. 

But though the Chinaman is thus dis- 
regardful of life, though many can be 
found who will give their lives for a few 
dollars or out of revenge, yet no peo- 
ple are so mindful of the body after 
death or so clear in mind as to the fu- 
ture state. They provide the departed 
spirit with an elaborate outfit, furni- 
ture and clothes, and even deeds of 
property, all of paper, all to be burned, 
and all of value in the spirit world. The 
body is prepared with elaborate care, 
and buried in ground which is hence- 
forth sacred. 

With all his practicality, the China- 
man is intensely religious, or perhaps 

201 



Cfte Spirit of tfie ©dent 



as the King James version mistrans- 
lates St. Paul's word, "superstitious." 
There are three great religions, and 
a Chinaman may believe any or all 
or, most likely, some composite of the 
three. Two are native and one im- 
ported. The last is Buddhism. It was 
made the state religion in the first cen- 
tury of the Christian era, and for a 
thousand years influenced profoundly 
the empire. Emperors abdicated and 
became monks; great nobles founded 
monasteries, becoming abbots; great 
ladies entered convents ; literature and 
philosophy were shaped by the Indian 
teaching. But after the thousand years 
had passed educated men rejected the 
religion and returned to the teaching 
pf Confucius, leaving Buddhism for the 
ignorant and the lowly. Nowadays it is 
still in this evil fortune, compounded 
with a variety of native superstitions 
and incapable of high influence. Its 
priests are ignorant and degraded, 
and its true followers few. The attitude 

202 



€bim, it0 Spirit anP profttems 

of the gentry towards it is well illus- 
trated by an address given by a high 
official some years ago at the dedica- 
tion of a Buddhist temple. He told the 
people that he came because he had 
been earnestly invited to make the 
chief address ; that of course he did not 
believe in any of these things; that he 
had no doubt Buddhism was of some 
interest and valueforthelower classes; 
and, finally, that possibly there might 
be some truth in some of its teach- 
ings! No one seemed shocked or even 
surprised at so strange an address of 
dedication, for it expressed what ev- 
ery one knew to be the facts. 

Besides Buddhism is Taoism. It was 
originally a mysticism, but is now sim- 
ply a mass of miscellaneous supersti- 
tions, with priests who act as necro- 
mancers and quellers of evil spirits. 
They cast the horologue for infants, 
choose lucky days for enterprises, and 
determine what is the relationship of 
the position of houses to good and bad 

203 



Cfte §)pmt of tfte 2Dnent 



luck. Most potent of all the influences 
which determine man*s destiny are 
those of air and earth (Feng-Shui the 
Chinese call them), and the necroman- 
cer must always be consulted in order 
that evil maybe ordered or avoided and 
good invited. The topic would take a 
volume by itself. 
The ordinary citizen cares little for 
distinctions between these systems, 
and knows little of their teachings. He 
follows custom and tradition, and fre- 
quents the village temple, and employs 
the priest as he binds his daughter's 
feet, and conforms to the fashions in 
his dress. The government has no state 
church, but it governs religion as it 
governs all else. The officials are su- 
perior not only to the priests but to 
the gods, so that one may read in the 
Peking "Gazette," the official publica- 
tion of the government, of the exalta- 
tion or the degradation of some local 
deity precisely as of the promotion or 
punishment of a human official. 
204 



€6ma,it0 Spirit anD Problems 

The religion of the official is Confu- 
cianism, and this is the true religion 
of China. As in India so in China, re- 
ligion is like a transcript of the peo- 
ple, it reveals in clearest light the 
spirit of the empire. Confucianism has 
been described as chiefly polity, that 
is, for the government of the states- 
man. In fact it is intended first of all 
for him, and sets forth the ideal which 
is to be his guide. It is lofty, rational, 
attainable, and, as things go, effec- 
tive. It makes righteousness the very 
essence of the ruler. If a man be not 
righteous he is no ruler, and a king is 
rightfully dethroned if he transgress 
the law. As with the ruler so with all 
men, righteousness is first, indeed it 
forms man's true nature. Elsewhere 
only by the Jewish prophets has the 
rule of right conduct been so exalted 
and righteousness made so supreme. 
In empire, in community, in family, in 
one's own soul, righteousness is to 
reign. Or we may reverse the order. 

205 



Ct)e@pitttoft{)effl)rient 



One is first of all to govern himself ac- 
cording to righteousness, then his fa- 
mily, then the community, and then the 
empire. Righteousness is the law not 
only of mankind but of the material 
universe as well. All is law, and all is 
according to one great system. In it 
everything has its place, and in its 
place finds its reason for itsbeing. That 
is, the Emperor is not Emperor in or- 
der that he may enjoy wealth and plea- 
sure and power. He is Emperor for the 
sake of the people. As it is written, 
"The Empire is the Empire of the 
Empire. It is not the Empire of one 
man." So with the father, he is father 
not for his pleasure but for the sake of 
his family; and so with the son, his 
existence is not for himself but for his 
parents' sake. Nor are these relation- 
ships merely of human contrivance, 
they are natural, the expression of 
heaven's eternal law. Heaven is ex- 
pressed in righteousness and truth, 
for it is not the blue vault above us, 
206 



Cftina, its Spirit anp Ptoftlcmg 

but is the eternal and unchanging 
power which watches over us and 
makes for righteousness. Thus Con- 
fucianism begins with the concrete 
relationships of our lives, and it ends 
with a religious acknowledgment of 
an invisible Power which is from 
everlasting to everlasting. But such 
a system is too refined for the ordi- 
nary man. Confucius himself said, 
"Heaven is too cold and heartless, 
therefore the common people turn to 
gods and spirits." 

The contrast between India and 
China comes out most clearly in their 
religions. In India the highest holiness 
is expressed by flight from the world 
and is found in the ascetic and the 
recluse. In China such a retreat from 
the responsibilities of life is the act 
of a madman, for man's true place is 
found precisely in the activities of life 
and in being true to one's family, 
friends and government. Hence Bud- 
dhism is repudiated in the name of a 

207 



Cfie Spirit of tbe 2Drient 



higher morality, or it is accepted as a 
system of rites and ceremonies, while 
Confucianism is maintained as the 
social and ethical code for conduct. 
As one thinks of Confucianism, its 
vast antiquity, its immense influence 
over such multitudes, its practical 
common sense, its freedom from all 
that is superstitious or licentious or 
cruel or priestly, of the intelligent 
men it has led to high views of right- 
eousness, one cannot but regard it as 
a revelation from the God of truth and 
righteousness, and as one of the main 
reasons which account for the long 
continued peace, prosperity and mo- 
rality of the remarkable people who 
produced it. 

If now after this hasty and inade- 
quate review we ask ourselves what 
are the great problems which face 
China, we find ourselves confronted 
by difficulties nowhere surpassed. 
First of all is the physical situation. 
What shall be done with a country 
208 



Cftma, itg g)pmt anP ptoftlemg 

where poverty is so prevalent? Shall 
we develop the resources of the coun- 
try, introduce scientific methods of 
agriculture, build factories and rail- 
ways, and in general transform indus- 
try? But meanwhile what of the myri- 
ads who shall find themselves without 
employment, displaced by railway and 
factory and machinery? Our political 
economy teaches that progress is al- 
ways at the expense of many, and the 
gain is worth the inevitable cost. But 
in China the cost would be so inevitable 
and so tremendous that one would hesi- 
tate to give the orderwere he possessed 
of omnipotent command. Will future 
gain balance present misery, or has one 
the right to doom the present genera- 
tion to suffering for the sake of those 
that shall come hereafter? However, 
the question is not altogether one-sided 
nor theoretical. The people now suf- 
fer, as we have seen. The population 
presses upon the resources, and mil- 
lions are in dire poverty, with famine 

209 



Cfie ©pint of tfte ©rient 



and pestilence always present possi- 
bilities. Only if we are to sit down 
helpless before fate can we take the 
view that nothing must be done be- 
cause of the displacement of labor. It 
would seem as if the new era had 
come to China almost too late, but 
none the less we are convinced that 
only as man utilizes the forces of na- 
ture, only as he learns its laws and 
applies them, can there be escape from 
misery, and this is as true in China as ; 
in America. 

The same holds in all departments 
of life. China has a splendid belief in 
nature and in obedience to its laws. 
But it confounds nature's laws with 
the contents of the sacred books. 
One would not disturb the confidence 
in nature, but China must replace its 
useless learning, its poetical and lit- 
erary accomplishments, by the know- 
ledge of facts. The empire has the de- 
fects of its qualities. Its veneration, its 
propriety, its sobriety, all bind and fet- 

210 



Cbina, its Spirit ano Ptofalems 

ter it because it lacks the freedom of 
the spirit and is bound fast by the let- 
ter. None gives higher respect to Con- 
fucius than do I. But how shall any code 
framed in the remote past meet the 
changing conditions of human devel- 
opment, or fail to fetter man when it 
is taken as unchanging law? With 
little that needs to be repudiated or 
cast aside, China should add to its 
stores of learning the new science in 
all its branches, and be prepared to 
live not in the twelfth century B.C. 
but in the twentieth century A.D. 
With these changes should come the 
reformation of its government. It does 
not need a revolution or the overthrow 
of existing institutions. The present 
ones will suffice if efficiently adminis- 
tered. And how shall this be accom- 
plished? How shall knowledge be sub- 
stituted for pedantry, honesty for cor- 
ruption, clear-sighted intelligence for 
obstructive conservatism? How, in 
short, shall China be led forth into the 

211 



Cfte %pitit of tfte ©nent 



currents of the twentieth century and 
be made participant in the progress 
of the world? 

Let us repeat, "the good is ever the 
enemy of the best." And it is because 
China has so long possessed the 
"good" that it is the inveterate enemy 
of the "best." Nowhere else is preju- 
dice stronger, nowhere else are ancient 
customs which are unfortunate and 
evil more firmly established. Contact 
with foreign nations has not broken 
down the Chinese wall of misunder- 
standings and antipathy. Neither the 
friendly meetings of commerce nor the 
hostile meetings of war, neither the 
knowledge of the greater wealth and 
prosperity of the Occident nor the ap- 
parition of European armies in Peking 
itself, has sufficed for China's awaken- 
ing. But now at last Boxer troubles, 
Russian aggression, and the startling 
success of Japan appear to be arous- 
ing the giant. What shall be the out- 
come none can know. It will not be 

2X2 



Cbina, ttg %mit anP Ptoblemg 

shown completely in our generation, 
for he is a fool who attempts to * * hustle " 
China. It can be transformed neither in 
haste nor by arms. Its development 
has been too ancient and too slow, its 
people are too content and too numer- 
ous, its institutions are too perfectly 
fitted to the needs of the people and 
its classic teachings too completely 
expressive of their mind, for any at- 
tempt at sudden reformation or revo- 
lution to succeed. The highest wish 
one may form is, that slowly, without 
revolution or haste or cessation, the 
people be educated to new ideals and 
to new views of nature and of God, and 
that thus still on the basis of the old a 
new may be reared which shall be bet- 
ter than the old and yet possess its 
splendid virtues. 

China's peculiar characteristics are 
the result of her immemorial seclusion. 
Her great wall is typical of her intel- 
lectual, economic and social barriers. 
Henceforth isolation is impossible and 

213 



C6e §>pint of tbe ©tient 



undesirable. Not through any sudden 
irruption of "barbarians" can the tra- 
ditions of millenniums be overturned, 
but only by the slow process of peace- 
ful contact. We may hope that electri- 
city and steam and the countless forces 
of our era which make for international 
intercourse will affect China at last and 
bring her into the comityof nations and 
give to her the best which the West 
has learned. 



VII 

3Iapan, tt0 People anD Custom0 



VII 

%apan, (tjS ptt^it ana Cujstomjs 




|HE continent of Asia is 
fringed upon its east by a 
long line of islands which 
stretch from Kamchatka on 
the north to the equator. More than 
two thousand miles of this line ac- 
knowledge the sovereignty of Japan, 
the northern limit being farther north 
than the northern boundary of Maine, 
and its southern south of the Tropic of 
Cancer. By the cession of the southern 
half of Sakhalin to Japan under the 
terms of the new Russo-Japanese 
treaty, the northern boundary of the 
"island empire" will touch a parallel 
which crosses Labrador. But without 
this addition the empire now extends 
through thirty degrees of latitude and 
thirty-five of longitude. Yet we con- 
stantly think of it as a little kingdom, 
and doubtless Russian statesmen un- 
derestimated its size by the habitual 

217 



C6e ©pitit of tfte ©riem 



use of maps drawn to different scales, 
big for the home lands and small for 
the rest of the world. 

Excluding the colonial possessions, 
the empire itself may be thought of 
as corresponding to our own Atlantic 
seaboard, from the northern boundary 
of Maine to Florida, with an area 
somewhat more, perhaps a quarter 
more, than that of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and a population of about 
forty-five millions. Hence it is not one 
of the minor nations, but in size is com- 
parable to France. 

Its population is very dense in spots. 
The land is a great mountain chain 
rising out of the sea and full of volca- 
noes. From the central mountainous 
mass branches run out in various direc- 
tions to the sea, so that one is almost 
never out of sight of hills, nor are there 
any really extensive plains. The moun- 
tains are sparsely inhabited and are 
not inviting for agriculture. Indeed only 
one tenth of the whole surface is un- 
218 



31apan, its People ano Customs 

der cultivation, so that a small fraction 
of the area supports the population, 
aided, it is true, by the plentiful harvest 
of the sea. 

The mountains came out of the sea, 
but whence the people came we do not 
know. Some time in the dim past they 
came across the narrow straits from 
Korea, and in various waves of immi- 
gration occupied the land. That was 
before they had either written history 
or oral tradition, and the memory of 
their journeys on the continent has 
long since faded without leaving more 
than a doubtful trace or two. What we 
know is chiefly negative. They are not 
akin to the Chinese nor to any other 
people on the mainland, except in a re- 
mote cousinly fashion to the Koreans. 
If we may judge from their language, 
these are their only kin, besides the 
tribes who live in Loo Choo, now also 
under Japanese rule. 

As we do not know whence the race 
came, so also we do not know when 

219 



Cfie@)pitttoft6e©tient 



they came into their land. Already it 
was occupied, and for ages the new- 
comers fought the aborigines (if indeed 
these were not immigrants themselves 
and conquerors like the Japanese), un- 
til at last the latest comers were in se- 
cure possession and at peace. During 
this same period, however, the Japa- 
nese fought among themselves, being 
divided into clans or tribes or fami- 
lies without any strong central govern- 
ment. Japan is unlike India and China 
in this : it has not a history of imme- 
morial antiquity, but is a new nation, 
in age comparable to the nations of 
Europe. When the Germanic tribes 
were still semi-barbarous so were the 
Japanese, for the latter came under the 
influence of enlightenment only a little 
before the time of Charlemagne. 

Long, then, after the Christian era ci- 
vilization came to Japan from China, 
brought by Buddhist priests who came 
as missionaries not only of civilization 
but of religion. The earliest trust- 

220 



3Iapan, its People anD Customs 

worthy date is 552, and the first book 
written in Japan, which still remains, 
was composed in the year 712. Thence- 
forward the history of the people is 
clear and carefully written. 

Buddhism won its first converts a- 
mong the highest of the people, em- 
perors and queens and great nobles. 
There was something of opposition, in 
part religious on the part of the old 
native faith, in part political by men 
who did not fancy the new system of 
government now introduced. For with 
Buddhism came all Chinese civiliza- 
tion, the very name by which Japan is 
called, Nippon; the centralized form 
of government, with emperor, who in 
imitation of Chinese usage was called 
Son of Heaven, and twelve ministries, 
and an organization of the country in- 
to provinces; a new code of laws; let- 
ters and literature, mechanics, agri- 
culture, commerce, architecture, art,— 
all continental and all adopted with 
fervor. The process was long, from the 

221 



Cfie @pmt of tfte ©tient 



middle of the sixth century to the mid- 
dle of the eighth, but it was accom- 
plished at last, and Japan took on the 
appearance which it still retains. 

Fortunately, the process was per- 
mitted to go on to its end without inter- 
ference. After a few ineffectual upris- 
ings there were no rebellions within, 
and no foreign foe appeared without. 
Foreigners indeed were interested in 
the process, but as friends and advis- 
ers and teachers only. They did not 
plot for supremacy, nor use their posi- 
tion to further political ends, so that 
they were trusted and given positions 
of honor. After a time the Japanese 
visited China and Korea, seeking 
knowledge at the fountainhead, and 
came back laden with treasures of in- 
formation. 

The civilization thus introduced was 
of course Asiatic in all its characteris- 
tics, but it was Asiatic civilization at 
its best. Buddhism as it came to Japan 
was an organized religion, with tem- 

222 



3[apan, it0 People anti Customs 

pies and monasteries and a hierarchy. 
It had a developed theology, a meta- 
physical philosophy and many sects. 
Its influence was great, for Japanese 
religion was completely unformed and 
undogmatic. In place of its simple na- 
ture-worship with its confused mass 
of superstitions Buddhism brought 
definite ideas, elaborate rites and a 
profound beUef in education. Schools 
were started in connection with the 
temples, and the people were taught 
the wonders of Asiatic learning. 

But with all its excellences Bud- 
dhism was thoroughly Asiatic. Its 
idea of God was profoundly philosophi- 
cal, so that only the few could under- 
stand it, and, therefore, precisely as in 
India, for the masses there were pious 
fictions which were "good enough" 
for them. Then, still more to the detri- 
ment of sound ideals, the conception 
of the religious life was ascetic, or at 
least religion was synonymous with 
"flight from the world." Hence the 

223 



C6e g)pitit of t6e Dtient 

holy man is not in the world, but has- 
tens out of it, and his task is not its re- 
formation, but the contemplation of 
the "Ultimate and the Absolute." 
With such teaching there is always 
danger that the best of the nation will 
shun its most pressing tasks, and that 
the great work of every day will be de- 
graded by the belief that it is not tru- 
ly religious. Buddhism in Japan was 
saved in part from these results by its 
union with Confucianism. For when 
Buddhism came to Japan it was still 
in harmony with the rival system in 
China, the former furnishing the ma- 
terial for the religious life, and the lat- 
ter the code of morals for the work- 
aday world. So was it in Japan, and 
thus the full effects of Buddhism were 
not felt. Still, as in China, emperors 
abdicated to enter monasteries, and 
great nobles became abbots. There 
was immense activity in temple-build- 
ing and in religious art and in reli- 
gious ceremonies andrites.The nation 
224 




& 

=.^#^ 



..;;:'«S^^ 



3lapan, to People anD €nmms 



took on a religious aspect which still 
continues. Notwithstanding this un- 
doubted service in bringing civiliza- 
tion and learning, the predominant 
characteristic was other-worldliness, 
for the typical Buddhist is the man 
who is so impressed with the transi- 
tory and worthless character of all 
things that he comes to think that 
nothing is of real consequence, so that 
happiness is not to be sought nor sor- 
row avoided. Hence the world as- 
sumes an unreal aspect and is sorrow- 
ful in its best estate. "As sad as a 
temple bell" is a Japanese proverb, 
and the impression made by religion 
is that all strenuous effort is an error, 
quietness, repose and a placid con- 
tent being the chief ends of life. In all 
this Japan belongs to the continent up- 
on whose border it lies. 
The civilization which resulted from 
this contact with China was truly of 
the Asiatic type. How indeed could it 
have been otherwise ? In the first chap- 

225 



CfteSipttitoftfteDtient 



ter reference was made to a Turk 
who objected to life in Paris, his ideal 
being a mansion and a garden and a 
group of friends, removed from social 
functions and great dinners and en- 
gagements and note-writing; a place 
where one could be in luxurious ease 
and do as he pleased. Such was this 
early civilization in Japan, refined, aes- 
thetic, luxurious, in retreat from the 
responsibilities and cares of life, and 
withal immoral. The emperors were 
the source of power, but they ceased 
to rule. The great nobles monopolized 
the offices of state, but they were too 
effeminate to attend to their duties. 
The lesser nobles sent their subordi- 
nates to govern the provinces in their 
name, and gave themselves to plea- 
sure, while over the whole scene reli- 
gion threw its half-light, the great Bud- 
dhistic establishments being under 
the patronage of the emperor and his 
princes and as luxurious as palaces. 
Thither the rulers retired for repose 
226 



31apan, iw IPeopIe anD Customs 

when the ceremonious life at court be- 
came too burdensome. Had all this 
continued Japan would have become 
decrepit before reaching maturity. 

But this spirit of Oriental luxury is 
not the spirit of Japan. After a time 
luxurious peace came to an end. Be- 
cause of the misrule of the central 
government rebellion broke out and 
endless feuds ensued. A feudal system 
was formed gradually with its barons 
from the ranks of the soldiery, while 
the old nobility looked on helplessly, 
and the emperor lost all his power, be- 
coming a prisoner of state, none the 
less a prisoner because invested with a 
quasi-divine dignity. For five hundred 
years war was the burden of the story. 
It is a tiresome tale, Asiatic in this, 
that it involved no great principle, but 
was merely tribal, individual and lo- 
cal strife. No great constitutional 
movement came out of it and no high 
ideal of the worth of man; hence it is 
not history in the highest sense, for 

227 



Cfie %pitit of tfte ©tient 



that is a record not of the doings of 
man but of his progress. 

However, something was accom- 
plished during these centuries. In the 
earliest times there was no army, but 
so far as we can judge from our imper- 
fect evidence, the strongest men served 
as soldiers in the time of need, and if 
there were troops with local chieftains, 
they were not distinguished perma- 
nently from the masses of the people. 
But in the feudal wars gradually a 
military class was formed, the famous 
samurai. They were the military re- 
tainers of the barons, and corresponded 
roughly to the knights of feudal Eu- 
rope. Each baron had his castle with 
its moats and walls. Within the outer 
walls dwelt the samurai, or sometimes 
in choice situations in the near vicin- 
ity. They constituted the power on 
which thebaron depended, and in them, 
subject to him, were vested all the 
state functions. They were the judges 
and the civil officials as well as the 
228 



3[apan, it^ people anP Cu0tomg 

military force. The baron only was 
above them, and he was often so effem- 
inate that the knights had all things 
in their control, so that their interests 
were varied, and they learned to iden- 
tify themselves with the state. They 
in time constituted a caste, and though 
some of the greatest soldiers Japan 
has produced came from the common 
people, and though there is no differ- 
ence in blood or in fundamental char- 
acteristics between the samurai and 
the rest, yet so strong was the feeling 
of superiority that a man from the 
people who by extraordinary means 
entered this higher class was ostra- 
cized, nor could his descendants re- 
gard themselves as on an equality un- 
til the fourth or fifth generation. 
We find, then, in Japan a social organ- 
ization which was not essentially Asi- 
atic but approximated the scheme of 
Europe in the feudal ages. First of all 
were the emperor and the court no- 
bles, with a religious atmosphere about 

229 



Cfie Spirit of tbe 2Dtient 



them, living in retirement without con- 
tact with the actual affairs of the 
empire. Similar instances have been 
known in Europe; for example, the 
sluggard kings of France in the sev- 
enth and eighth centuries. Then came 
the feudal barons, in number varying 
at different times, but say two hundred 
and fifty in all, men who had seized po- 
sitions of advantage and had won the 
power which they handed to their de- 
scendants, provided the sword which 
had won it could preserve it; next 
were the samurai, the knights, the 
gentlemen, some four hundred thou- 
sand of them, making with their wives 
and children a total of eighteen hun- 
dred thousand ; and below these were 
the common people, — farmers, arti- 
sans, merchants and laborers,— with 
a horde still below the last, beggars and 
thieves and outcastes. This organiza- 
tion lasted until 1867-9, when the feudal 
system was overthrown and modern 
reforms were introduced. 
230 



3Iapan, tt0 People anD Cu0tom0 

If now we attempt to enter the life of 
the people we shall find resemblances 
to and differences from other Asiatic 
kingdoms. Here was not a peace-lov- 
ing democracy as in China, nor a caste 
system based on differences in nation- 
ality as in India, but a feudal aristo- 
cracy as in Europe. Nor, again, was 
there, as in China, a notion of self-suf- 
ficiency, of being the only civilized na- 
tion under heaven, for the people were 
well aware that their civilization was 
not indigenous but imported. Nor was 
there the sense of subjugation which is 
characteristic of India where wave af- 
ter wave of foreign conquest has rolled 
over the land, for Japan has never been 
conquered by a foreign foe. Thus again 
we have a consciousness approaching 
the European type, with its recogni- 
tion of indebtedness to the ancient ci- 
vilizations and its proud self-reliance 
and confidence in its power to work 
out its own destiny. From such com- 
binations we may look for the greatest 

231 



CfteSpftttoftbeaDtiem 



results, not from peoples who have 
been so isolated that they have ac- 
quired an altogether false conception 
of their own position, nor from peo- 
ples who have been so conquered that 
they have lost self-confidence, but pre- 
cisely from peoples who, knowing their 
debt to others, are still confident in 
their own ability to maintain their in- 
dependence and to add to the progress 
of the race. 

This consciousness in Japan was dif- 
ferently developed in the differing 
classes, and yet it was not wholly 
wanting in any. With all his ceremo- 
nial readiness to acknowledge his su- 
periors there was in the common man 
a certain sturdy self-assertion which 
commanded respect, for he was by no 
means ready to submit beyond definite 
limits, and at times forced the hand 
of his masters by acts of heroic self- 
devotion. 

The farmers ranked next to the gen- 
tlemen, and some of them were men of 
232 



3[apan, its People anp Cugtomg 

importance. The homeofagreat farmer 
had the characteristics we found want- 
ing in China,— elegance, neatness, 
comfort, order, attractiveness. A friend 
of mine was the son of a farmer who 
had hundreds of peasants. They were 
his tenants, paying him half their gross 
products as rent. They were at his 
mercy, owning nothing but their little 
cabins and the ground on which they 
stood. Were he to refuse one of them 
the renewal of his lease, it would be 
ruin. There was no possibility of other 
employment in the neighborhood, and 
a peasant could not travel to any other 
district without a passport. Yet the 
relationship was not without its alle- 
viations. In hard seasons the landlord 
reduced the rent or remitted it alto- 
gether, and in cases of misfortune he 
was expected to aid. But he was not 
free himself. The government exacted 
a large part of his receipts as land tax, 
and as he looked down upon his ten- 
ants and would not associate with 

233 



Cfte^pitftoftfteflDtient 



them, so did the gentlemen look down 
upon him. At the end of an avenue of 
fine old trees, and surrounded by a 
beautiful garden, stood his house, large 
and well arranged, with articles of art 
and every indication of refinement. Life 
had run on in peace and prosperity for 
generations, the estate being entailed 
so that it was inherited by the eldest 
son. 
In some of the provinces the tenants 
had larger rights. In Tosa, for exam- 
ple, the tenant could not be evicted if 
he paid his rent, nor could the rent be 
increased, and he could sell his rent- 
hold at his will, while all the improve- 
ments he had made were his. Thus 
he was independent. Tosa anticipated 
the Ulster custom of tenant rights. 
In this province there were no great 
farmers, none with a place compara- 
ble to that described in the last para- 
graph, but, on the other hand, none 
was very poor. They were an inde- 
pendent folk, unceremonious, know- 
234 



3lapan, m People anD Customs 

ing their own rights, and ready to de- 
fend them, mindful of the feudal wars 
in which their fathers had taken part, 
fighting for this baron or for that, and 
winning the respect of the gentlemen 
by their bravery. 

In the regions near Yedo (Tokyo) 
the conditions were harder, and the 
farmers sometimes rose in rebellion, 
not against the system but against 
its administration. A story is told of 
one who sacrificed himself for his 
neighbors, winning immortal fame. 
Conditions were unbearable, and the 
local baron was deaf to all entreaties. 
So this farmer resolved to lose his life 
for the welfare of his fellows. He wrote 
a petition setting forth the wrongs of 
the farmers, and went to Yedo. There 
he waited his opportunity, and thrust 
his petition into the palanquin of the 
ruler of Japan, the Shogun. This act 
was punishable with death, for none 
was permitted to approach the sov- 
ereign in such irregular fashion, and 

235 



Cbe ©pitit of tfte ©tient 



the farmer was taken, handed over to 
his own master and crucified. But his 
purpose was accomplished and the 
people were relieved. 
At best the work of the peasant 
farmer is insufficiently rewarded. He 
cannot eat the rice he raises, but must 
sell it and live on cheaper food; his 
house is small and devoid of furniture 
and his clothing is of the scantiest. 
A peasant in Tosa showed me his ac- 
count for a year, and his total receipts 
from twelve months of hard work were 
less than twenty dollars, out of which 
he had to clothe and feed himself. 
And the peasant is well off who earns 
sixty dollars in the year. Hence life 
is of the simplest. Yet it has its com- 
pensations: for example, once in a 
lifetime a religious pilgrimage, which 
is a prolonged picnic, to some famous 
shrine, or a trip to Tokyo and to its 
temples. Besides there are holidays 
and rustic festivals and pleasant re- 
sorts within easy reach. The peasant 
236 



3Iapan, its People ana Customs 

also loves nature and has his tiny gar- 
den, and for the winter time a box of 
plants. His children nowadays go to 
school, and begin to understand some- 
thing of the events of the day. For 
Japan has a well-established system 
of public schools, based upon our own, 
and tuition is free to all who apply for 
it, though a small fee is charged the 
well-to-do. 

From the ranks of the farmers comes 
a large part of the class foreigners 
call "coolies." The young men dread 
the hard and narrow life of the farm, 
and go to the cities, where they can 
find employment in pulling the little 
carriages called jinrikisha. In Tokyo 
alone more than forty thousand men 
gain their livelihood by this means. A 
man may earn a dollar on some days 
if he be fortunate, or, in private em- 
ployment, as much as eight dollars 
a month. Then he has the excitement 
of his trips, racing with his fellows, 
and taking long runs as a great pic- 

237 



Cfie ©pitit of tfte SDtient 



nic. The work is not continuous as on 
the farm, but is interspersed with rest 
and amusement. He eats better food 
and sees more of the world, and so, 
though he descends a step in the so- 
cial world, he chooses the pleasanter 
life. Often it is the more immoral life 
also, and as he does not take good 
care of himself, he is worn out before 
his time. From these men and their 
fellows, the hereditary coolies, the 
government has found endless num- 
bers of recruits for its service in Korea 
and Manchuria,— an unexcelled force 
for carrying burdens and pulling carts, 
cheaper and more effective than 
horses, and as dependable as the sol- 
diers themselves. 

The artisans rank next to the farm- 
ers. Their work is like that of arti- 
sans in all lands, but it is distinguished 
by its artistic quality. China has pro- 
duced great artists, and India has 
magnificent structures in its tombs 
and palaces and temples ; but no other 
238 



glapan, itg Peopte ana Custom0 

land can show such a love for the 
beautiful and such a universal power 
for its production as can Japan. Italy 
is its only rival, and art is even more 
common in Japan than in Italy. Art is 
not a thing apart, though there are fa- 
milies and guilds of artists, but it is the 
application of beauty to common arti- 
cles. So that one finds bits of fine carv- 
ing in remote country villages, in inns 
and farm-houses, and forms of roofs 
and gateways and verandas which 
please the artistic sense, and utensils 
of the kitchen and the table which in 
shape and decoration are worthy of the 
collector's attention. Even in the pri- 
sons are men and women who produce 
embroidery and carvings and artistic 
articles in many varieties. Thus art is 
only the common work done with lov- 
ing care and with a feeling for the 
beautiful, and one hesitates to draw 
the line between artisan and artist. 
In the old days the best workers 
were given a distinguished place, the 

239 



Cl)e@pfdtoftl)e©rient 



product of their labor being taken by 
great personages, and the workers 
treated like the retainers of the no- 
bles — that is, given allowances for a 
lifetime, and expected to produce work 
not by the piece and for the market 
but in perfection and with the con- 
noisseur in view. So to-day the choi- 
cest work is not done in factories but 
in tiny shops, the artist being content 
with his work and seeking only a mod- 
est livelihood. The coming of the mod- 
ern commercial spirit, however, threat- 
ens perfection, for it seeks pecuniary 
reward and as a consequence meets the 
popular taste and produces by whole- 
sale. Like the farmer and the coolie, 
the artisan and the artist form here- 
ditary castes, in which the blood de- 
scent is less important than skill in the 
vocation, for often the headship goes 
not to the eldest son but to an ap- 
prentice who excels. He may perhaps 
marry his master's daughter and be- 
come the head of the family, taking 
240 



3lapan, it0 IPeople anD Customs 

the family name and striving to main- 
tain its reputation. 

In such a society trade has a subor- 
dinate place, for the ideal is virtue, 
that is, work for the work's sake and 
not for gain. Hence mere barter is held 
in disrepute. The trader is looked upon 
as is the peddler or the huckster in the 
West. It is true there have been great 
families of merchants and houses fa- 
mous from generation to generation, 
but generally the trade was on a small 
scale and dishonest, the very notion 
of gain being dishonorable. Hence in 
our modern world the Japanese have 
acquired an evil repute among mer- 
chants. It is not easy to do business 
with men to whom a contract is not 
sacred, by whom profit is sought 
through overreaching and misrepre- 
sentation, and with whom trade is a 
game. A wise buyer of high-priced ar- 
ticles told me that on entering a little 
shop in search of ivories he never ex- 
pressed a desire to see them, but talked 

241 



Cfte Spirit of tfte ©rient 



of other articles,— bronze, silk or lac- 
quer,— and only after repeated visits, 
when the shopkeeper produced the 
ivories of his own accord, would the 
purchaser so much as look at them, and 
then only with the protestation that he 
cared nothing for them, but was ambi- 
tious only of other things. Or again, 
sometimes the price rises as the buyer 
desires many of a kind, a dozen coming 
to more than twelve times the price of 
one, because thus the shop is emptied 
of its stock and the seller is obliged 
to take the trouble to replenish it. Or 
again, it takes reiterated demands to 
get the article one desires brought 
forth, the merchant declaring that he 
does not have it, though his storehouse 
has an ample supply. For even the mer- 
chant does not have the true commer- 
cial spirit, but wishes only to live as 
his father lived and to gain the mod- 
est income which suffices for his wants. 
The combination seems odd, — a readi- 
ness to make large and illegal gains 
242 



3Iapan, it0 people anD Customs 

and the lack of enterprise in trade,-— 
but it is something every resident dis- 
covers to be a fact. Every ton of coal 
which enters the house and every 
quantity of sugar or flour or fruit must 
be watched or the buyer will find him- 
self defrauded, while the supply of milk 
is so adulterated that I have known 
careful housekeepers who demanded 
that the cow be milked in their pre- 
sence and the milk put directly into 
their receptacles. 

Servants also form a class by them- 
selves, but they are recruited from all 
the other classes. Domestic service 
has no stigma attached to it. In the 
feudal days much of the personal ser- 
vice was rendered by gentlemen, who 
were honored by such attentions to 
their lords. In a feudal society, where 
status is fixed, there is no danger of 
overstepping the bounds of propriety, 
and the servant may be an honored 
member of the family. So, often, men 
and women chose to follow their mas- 

243 



CfieSpmtoftfteHDtiem 



ters, even when in misfortune there 
could be no wages but only suffering 
and poverty. 

My own cook was a samurai . Once 
on a steamer I saw him talking to a 
high official of the government who 
was going to Germany to purchase 
guns for the navy. On inquiry I found 
that the two in the old days had been 
fellow clansmen, but that my servant 
had suffered in the changes made by 
the introduction of modern ways, while 
his old comrade had profited. My man 
had charge of all our domestic con- 
cerns. No new servant could stay with 
us against his wishes, and he was al- 
ways consulted when there was a va- 
cancy. He made the purchases, ren- 
dering his account every morning and 
having his percentage of profit on all. 
He would run the house without an 
order for a month at a time, and some- 
times when his mistress was absent 
and I had friends for dinner, he would 
arrange the menu, buy flowers and 
244 



31apan, its l^eople auD Customs 

decorate the table, and in general put 
me entirely at my ease. So, too, in go- 
ing into the country for a vacation, he 
would make a list of needed articles, 
send them off by express, precede us 
to the cottage in the mountains, put 
things in order, and greet us on our 
arrival with dinner prepared and all 
things in readiness. He was our loyal 
retainer, and would go forth with us 
to the ends of the earth. I doubt not 
he would come to us were we to re- 
turn to Japan after these years of ab- 
sence, for we are still his master and 
mistress. That is the servant at his 
best; but there are others, untrust- 
worthy, careless, wasteful, drunken, for 
human nature is the same in Japan as 
in the United States; it varies with in- 
dividuals, and one may not generalize 
from a limited experience. 
Japan differs from the continent of 
Asia in its natural scenery as in the 
characteristics of its people. Instead 
of vast plains, great mountain ranges 

245 



Cfie Spirit of tfie ©riem 



and mighty rivers there are hills and 
valleys, with the ever-present sea. No 
land excels it in picturesqueness, and 
in none do the people more perfectly 
fit their land. They love it as their only 
home, they rejoice in its beauty, and 
' they make their constructions suit its 
features. Their old legends relate the 
birth of the islands first, and then the 
birth of the people. All are alike in 
their descent and in their divinity. All 
alike, we may add, share in defects, 
since nothing is perfect upon earth. 
The same volcanic force which gave 
the islands their striking forms still 
works, making the land quake and 
tremble. In one earthquake, in 1891, 
more than ten thousand persons were 
killed and a hundred thousand houses 
were destroyed. The same winds from 
the south which bring clouds of warm 
moisture and pour their contents upon 
the hills bring also devastating ty- 
phoons which seem to laugh at the la- 
bors of men. Nowhere is nature more 
246 



3Iapan, it0 People anD Cu0tom0 



beautiful, nowhere more terrible. 
There is something akin to this in the 
Japanese themselves. No people are 
more perfectly trained to courtesy. 
When once I ran over a man in the 
street with my bicycle he picked him- 
self up and begged my pardon for get- 
ting in my way. Nowhere are there 
greater finish and nicety in workman- 
ship and art. Yet withal there are ter- 
rible forces, which when once aroused 
astonish us by their power. In the next 
chapter let us attempt to study this 
character more closely, that we may, 
in part at least, understand at once the 
Japanese achievements and the pro- 
blems which still await their solution. 



VIII 

3fapan, its ^pitit am ptolHems 



*F iHBB L9X* 



VIII 

N the end of the last chap- 
ter reference was made to 
the Japanese tradition. It is 
not very interesting, and is 
wanting in the beauty which charac- 
terizes the myths of other peoples. But 
it indicates a belief in the divinity of 
the land and of its people. Perhaps di- 
vinity is too strong a word, as the word 
in the Japanese means only "superi- 
or." So we may amend the sentence to 
read "in the excellence of the land and 
of its people." 

The world is astonished at the results 
produced in the last generation. It is 
only a little over fifty years since Com- 
modore Perry made the first treaty, 
and it is not yet fifty years since the 
first American was admitted to the 
empire as a resident. It was a grudg- 
ing admission, with the purpose of 
closing the door completely again af- 

251 



Cfie Spirit of tfie ©tient 



ter a little. But that proved an impos- 
sibility, and so after many troubles, 
which we cannot here stop to relate, 
less than forty years ago the people 
made up their minds definitely that 
the policy of seclusion was impossible, 
and that Japan must come forward 
and take its place among the great 
nations of the earth. 

Here was a momentous resolution, 
one unparalleled indeed, and few be- 
lieved that it could be carried into ac- 
tion. When I went to Japan twenty- 
eight years ago, in 1877, the movement 
was well under way. The young men 
were full of enthusiasm and of un- 
daunted confidence. "When foreign- 
ers came to Japan three hundred years 
ago we were their equals, but we have 
been asleep, while they have been 
wide awake. What they have done in 
three hundred years we must do in 
thirty." That was the spirit which ani- 
mated young Japan, and of course all 
the wise men laughed ; they had heard 
252 



3Iapan, its Spirit anP l^totiiemg 

boys talk before! Very few had confi- 
dence in the ability of the people or 
in their perseverance. "They are first- 
class copyists," we were told, "and 
will take on a superficial polish of 
Western civilization, but they are Asi- 
atics, and between Asiatics and Euro- 
peans there is a great gulf fixed. "The 
people did not pay attention to the 
criticism, but went their way; they 
engaged foreign instructors,— Ameri- 
cans, Englishmen, Germans, French- 
men,— and they sent endless delega- 
tions to Europe and to America to 
investigate and to study. It was a 
great vision of a great world which 
greeted them, and they recognized 
its greatness. 

What they have accomplished the 
world knows. The same group of men 
are still in control, now no longer 
young, supported in their task by other 
young men trained by themselves and 
of like spirit. None now talks about 
superficial imitation, for the test has 

253 



Cfte^pitftoftbeflDrient 



been of the hardest, and every portion 
of the organization has come forth 
with glory. The empire has been 
transformed; what the West accom- 
pHshed in three hundred years Japan 
has done in thirty, and the nation takes 
its place among the world powers. 
Here is the greatest of contrasts to 
India and to China. Europeans have 
come to think of Asia as an area for 
exploitation. Any bold soldier with a 
thousand troops could march through 
China; and the smallness of England's 
garrison in India is one of the wonders 
of the world. The East has lacked 
power of organization, of attention to 
detail, of thoroughgoing discipline, of 
patient working to great and distant 
ends. It has been absorbed in the con- 
templation of "the Ultimate and the 
Absolute," and it has submitted in the 
present world to more militant races. 
But Japan has proved itself possessed 
in high degree of the very qualities 
which we have regarded as peculiarly 
254 



3[apan, its Spirit anP pto&lemg 

belonging to the Occident. 

We have many explanations of the 
phenomena, but behind them all is this 
character. There is something in the 
nature of the Japanese which differen- 
tiates them from their fellows. Yet, as 
already indicated, it is not merely he- 
redity. Put the Chinaman and the Ja- 
panese in the same circumstances from 
childhood, and we doubt if the differ- 
ences would be great ; but the environ- 
ment has been different and with cor- 
respondingly different results. 

As we pointed out in the last chapter, 
the Japanese derived their civilization 
from the continent, Korea, China and 
India all contributing to it. In the 
seventh and eighth centuries of our 
era the Japanese were as eager to 
adopt the best as in our own time. 
They had been semi-barbarous when 
they became acquainted with a com- 
pleted civilization, and they set them- 
selves to master it, and in the course 
of three centuries succeeded. The 

255 



Cfie Spirit of tfie fiDrient 



higher classes began the work, and 
from them the new enlightenment 
spread throughout the nation. The 
native religion, Shinto, gave place to 
Buddhism ; the old form of semi-tribal 
government gave way to a central- 
ized empire ; the old huts which had 
done even for the emperor were re- 
built on Chinese models. The law, in- 
dustry, the whole life, was reformed 
upon continental models, with China- 
men and Koreans as instructors, and 
by and by with native Japanese who 
had visited the Asiatic continent as 
leaders. 

But while thus Chinese civilization 
was teacher and model, the Japanese 
were not simply imitators, for how 
unlike China is Japan in our day, in 
its houses, its gardens, its customs, 
its ideals, its ways of life, its social 
organization! The old civilization was 
not an indiscriminate adoption; there 
was no attempt to make Japan a sec- 
ond and an inferior China, but there 
256 



3[apan,ttg Spirit anp Pto&Iemg 

was intelligent adoption, and then 
adaptation. The needs were different, 
and the organization must fit the 
needs. 

In our own day the same process is 
going on. Again the Japanese came 
in contact with a civiHzation superior 
to their own. They saw at a glance 
that they could not compete with the 
wide-awake, scientific nations of the 
West if they were to continue on the 
old lines. As well might junks contend 
with steamships as the Chinese civil- 
ization with modern enlightenment. 
It was not a question as to which was 
better in the abstract, but it was the 
concrete question. What are we go- 
ing to do about it? There are foreign- 
ers who regret the transformation, the 
old was so unique and so attractive ; 
and indeed if the chief end of the Ja- 
panese is to furnish amusement to tra- 
vellers, then the old was better. But 
for men of ambition, for a people who 
wished to play an important part in 

257 



Cbe Spirit of tbe ©tient 



the world, there could be no question, 
and the intelligence of the Japanese 
is shown by their immediate compre- 
hension of that fact. The Chinese had 
known Europe for a longer time, but 
they had not grasped the situation, 
nor had they yet fully understood it, 
while meantime the Japanese saw, 
understood, and set themselves to 
conquer. 

Again, as in the first reformation in 
the seventh and eighth centuries, it 
was the higher classes which took 
the lead. It could not be otherwise. 
Only the samurai possessed the quali- 
ties which make for leadership, and 
only their intelligence was thoroughly 
trained. After the feudal wars ceased, 
say in the year 1600, there ensued a 
long period of peace. During this time 
the gentlemen studied the Chinese 
literature and philosophy. It was se- 
vere discipline, but it taught the value 
of learning and the process of acquir- 
ing it. Hence when Japan was opened 
258 



3Iapan,it0 Spirit anD Problems 

again to foreigners there were a large 
number of trained young men ready 
for modern learning. They thronged 
the schools where English was taught, 
and they visited foreign lands in com- 
panies. They did not doubt that what 
men had learned they could learn, and 
they wanted the highest and best in 
mathematics, in philosophy, in sci- 
ence, in the practical arts. Nor were 
they content with knowledge for them- 
selves. They knew the gulf between 
the common people and the gentle- 
men was caused in part by the pri- 
vileges and in greater part by the 
education of the latter, so privileges 
were done away with and provision 
was made for the education of all the 
people. 

But we may well ask ourselves what 
was the motive power in all this trans- 
formation. Why should a nation go 
to school with such enthusiasm, and 
why should men of a special class 
seek the elevation of the people? The 

259 



Cbe Spirit of tfte SDtient 



answer can be found only as we study 
again the character of the samurai . 
As we remember, he was the retainer 
of a baron. He lived the life of a sol- 
dier, and his ethics were those of a 
soldier. His first duty was loyalty. He 
was told stories of the men of old who 
gave up all things for the sake of lord 
and country; he was instructed that 
his body was not his own but his mas- 
ter's, and that his glory should be in 
unhesitating obedience and self-sacri- 
fice. He was taught that wealth and 
luxury might be attained by mer- 
chants, but should be despised by 
samurai . In some of the clans he was 
separated from home at an early age 
and put with other youths of his own 
age that his martial spirit might be 
fostered and he be brought up as the 
ward of his clan. Above all he was 
taught that his own life was not of 
importance. His education, whether 
through Buddhism directly or more 
likely through the Chinese philosophy, 
260 



3Iapan, its ^pitit atiD Problems 

impressed upon him the shortness of 
life and the certainty of death, and 
that whether soon or late was not of 
consequence. So too with all earthly 
happiness, it could not long endure, 
and what we call success is a small 
matter. What is of consequence is 
honor, and duty, and, above all, loy- 
alty. The boy was told the story of 
the national heroes and of his fami- 
ly. On certain anniversaries children 
were gathered together, and their pa- 
rents taught them that the spirits of 
their ancestors were present. Then the 
story of the family would be related 
and the boys and girls exhorted to 
live worthily, so that the honor of the 
family might be maintained and the 
spirit of the ancestors be gratified. 
With such training there was de- 
veloped a consciousness of social soli- 
darity and the perception that none 
liveth to himself A man's life was in 
his group, and he identified himself 
with its prosperity and adversity, so 

261 



Cfte Spirit of tfte ©rient 



that men and women did not wish to 
survive the defeat of their clan or 
party, but preferred to kill themselves 
and to perish when all hope was 
past. So a husband would unhesi- 
tatingly sacrifice his home ties for the 
sake of his feudal lord, and the wife 
was taught also to put husband and 
lord ever before herself Naturally so 
high an ideal was often violated, for 
no more in Japan than elsewhere have 
the ideal and the real been the same. 
But, nevertheless, a high ideal is a 
priceless possession. It stimulates he- 
roism, it promotes virtue and it estab- 
lishes a standard of judgment. There 
were traitors and self-seekers and 
disobedient sons and unfaithful ser- 
vants as in the rest of the world. In 
periods the ideal seemed to perish 
and corruption to triumph. Yet the 
ideal was never wholly lost, nor were 
there wanting "righteous" men who 
embodied it. 

The ideal itself was not perfect. It 
262 



3[apan, its ©pint anD ptotilems 

laid too great stress upon the organ- 
ism and too little upon the individual. 
Heroism and self-sacrifice would atone 
for all faults, and a man might live 
much as he pleased in his personal 
conduct if as samurai he maintained 
the standard of knightly devotion. In 
the story of the "Forty-seven Ro- 
nins," the most popular of Japanese 
tales, the leader, in his desire for ven- 
geance upon the enemy of his lord, 
debauches himself, drives away his 
wife, wastes his property, consorts 
with the lowest men and women, and 
lives a life of drunkenness and pro- 
fligacy, all in order that he might 
throw his enemy off his guard. Suc- 
cessful in this, he slew his foe and then 
committed hara-kiri, obtaining for 
himself and comrades the enthusiastic 
plaudits of the nation. The deed was 
done early in the eighteenth century, 
and still the people never weary of 
the story, and still the graves of the 
heroes are ornamented with flowers. 

263 



Cf)e%>pititoftf)eaDrient 



These men are called by way of pre- 
eminence the "righteous samurai." 
We indeed question the right of a 
man thus to transgress every rule of 
private virtue and to debauch him- 
self, but we cannot withhold our praise 
for such thoroughgoing loyalty. 
When Japan came into contact with 
the Occident loyalty supplied the 
power needed for its transformation. 
The alternative presented was, sub- 
mit to the West as India has sub- 
mitted or learn from it. With that 
alternative faced there could be no 
doubt as to the choice: Japan must 
be made the peer of the greatest. The 
passionate patriotism which lies be- 
neath the placid exterior of Oriental 
politeness forced forward the young 
men, whose labors and studies were 
always **for the sake of my country" 
and never for themselves. In these 
professions there was more or less 
hypocrisy doubtless, but it was un- 
conscious for the most part, and 
264 



3[apan, m %mit anP ptofalcmg 

mixed motives were present only as 
everywhere in this world of mingled 
good and evil. The patriotism was a 
living force, and the ideal a guide and 
a judge. 
Early in the movement some of the 
samurai set themselves to create a 
national patriotism. It had been the 
inspiration of a class; it was now to be 
made the virtue of a people. It was 
early seen that only a nation which 
commands the allegiance of all its 
children could take the place Japan 
aspired to reach ; hence the emperor 
was made the symbol of the nation, 
taking the place of the flag with us, 
and a loyalty to him was cultivated. 
He responded, giving up a part of his 
autocratic power, creating a constitu- 
tion, ruHng under it as a constitutional 
monarch, showing himself in public, 
looking after the welfare of his people 
in many ways, and making himself one 
with them so far as that is possible. 
He ceased to be a god, and became 

265 



Cfte ©pitit of tfte ©tiem 



the head of his fellow-countrymen. 
Thus he was more than a mere symbol, 
for he became an active agent in the 
transformation of his people. 

Great problems remain which require 
wisdom and perseverance beyond even 
the tasks of the past. In the compari- 
son it is easy to organize an army and 
to make over the machinery of the 
state, but the thorough training of a 
nation is of supreme difficulty. Let us 
take up the divisions of activity and 
set forth their problems. 

First of all is the government. Great 
as has been the advance, those who 
know the situation best will be the 
last to claim that the situation is sa- 
tisfactory. In the presence of the for- 
eign foe all domestic divisions disap- 
peared, but only for the time. Now 
that peace is declared the old es- 
trangement will show itself again. The 
empire is now under a constitution, 
with an emperor who has limited his 
own powers, a ministry subject only 
266 



3[apan. its ^y irtt a np Pto&lcms 

to him, a diet in two houses, with the 
lower in practical control, and with a 
bureaucracy which occupies a posi- 
tion of peculiar importance and inde- 
pendence. It is often the real power 
behindthe throne. The situation grows 
out of the history of the recent past. 
In the revolution of 1867-9 three 
great clans took the lead, and upon 
its successful conclusion they were in 
command of the empire. A small mi- 
nority fought the war, and a small mi- 
nonty was therefore in power. Soon a 
quarrel broke out among the victors, 
and one of the three clans withdrew 
from the coalition, while the second 
became involved in domestic strife 
and finally in war. As a result, a group 
of powerful, intelligent and intensely 
patriotic men, being few in number, 
had undisputed possession of all the 
sources of power. Their subordinates 
were given the offices in army, navy, 
police, education, finance ; all the places 
of vital control were parcelled out 

267 



C{)e§>pititoft6eSDrient 



among them, and the government was 
really by the samurai of two clans, 
Satsuma and Choshu. Hence in the 
course of a few years was built up a 
bureaucracy of great power. It still 
continues, though men from other 
clans have been admitted to positions 
of influence, and on the whole the 
scheme has been widened and liberal- 
ized. None the less it has made and 
unmade ministries and controlled the 
policy of the empire. 
Side by side with this is the Impe- 
rial Diet. Its formation was promised 
in the beginning of the new era, but 
its establishment was the result of a 
widespread agitation attended with 
intense political excitement. It has 
now been established long enough for 
the formation of a fair estimate of its 
value, and this, as perhaps we should 
have anticipated, has been neither as 
low as its opponents feared, nor as 
great as its advocates prophesied. Its 
life, excepting during periods of war, 
268 



has been a continual struggle for 
greater powers. The ministry is sub- 
ject only to the will of the emperor, 
but the Diet has sought to subject it 
to itself. In general we may say the 
contest has been between the German 
and the English parliamentary sys- 
tems, with the probability at times that 
the latter would prevail. The pecul- 
iar character of Japanese politics has 
always prevented, for great parties 
after the fashion of American and 
English public life are not found, but 
groups, somewhat in the French fash- 
ion. The old loyalty continues, a loyal- 
ty to individuals; so that great states- 
men have their devoted followers who 
care little for principles but much for 
men. Thus the personal element pre- 
dominates, the real divisions have 
centred in men, and the incessant 
struggles have resulted in the sub- 
stitution of one set of politicians for 
another rather than in measures of 
high utility. Before the outbreak of 

269 



Ct)e@pitttoft{)e®ricm 



the late war there were signs that the 
people were losing interest in the con- 
test, and that the nation would relapse 
into an attitude of passive compla- 
cence whoever should rule. Evidently 
the problem which must be solved in 
the years to come is this: How shall 
the forms of constitutional govern- 
ment be made a reality? Is it possible 
that the ancient principle of loyalty to 
the individual can be replaced by loy- 
alty to principles, and can the ancient 
soHdarity of the clan, which so readily 
becomes the solidarity of a great bu- 
reaucracy, give place to the real gov- 
ernment by and for the people? Mani- 
festly it is easier to change forms than 
to regenerate the spirit; and perhaps 
more has been accomplished already 
than could have been expected. For 
elections with free discussions, and a 
free presswhich reaches all intelligent 
people, and the interest in the proceed- 
ings of the Diet, are powerful engines 
for the production of the material out 
270 



Japan, it0 Spirit anD ptofilcms 

of which really constitutional and mod- 
ern states are formed. 

But on this issue depends largely 
the future of the empire. No more in 
Japan than elsewhere can a bureau- 
cracy be trusted with the control of a 
people. Government for the people in 
time inevitably becomes government 
for a group of men. Neither creed nor 
race nor excellence of intention can 
prevent the operation of that natural 
law. Japan has already shown that it 
is not exempt. While the statesmen 
who have controlled it have been pa- 
triots of high purpose, yet Tokyo has 
been filled with stories of "govern- 
ment merchants" whose contracts 
would not stand examination, and of 
monopolies of various kinds estab- 
lished by government grants and with 
profits shared by men who granted 
them. The results are inevitable in 
the future, whatever may be the false- 
ness of the rumors now; but there is 
evidence that not even the patriotism 

271 



CfieSpftitoftftefiDtient 



of the Japanese in its transition pe- 
riod has been proof against sordid 
gain; while if we turn to the past, un- 
der the old feudal system, there is 
proof in plenty of widespread misman- 
agement and corruption. The system 
at the end was rotten, and had it then 
been brought to the supreme test it 
would have collapsed as completely 
as has Russia. The same causes will 
in time show the same effects, and the 
hope of escape is through the com- 
plete carrying out of the plans now 
begun. 
It is true the Diet itself has not been 
free from corruption nor from petty 
and disgraceful intrigue. Human na- 
ture everywhere asserts itself in its 
evil as in its good. But, while the Diet 
has been far from perfect, and while 
its members have shown themselves 
unable to form effective combinations, 
still its publicity and its responsibili- 
ty to the people will aid in educating 
an electorate which shall require not 
272 



31apan, it0 ©pitit anD Problems 

only patriotism but honesty, as indeed 
the pubHc already requires these vir- 
tues. The one real advantage of the 
parliamentary system is this : while a 
bureaucracy may conceal its faults, a 
parliament commits its faults in the 
sight of Heaven. 

There are commercial problems of 
great seriousness. Japan, as we have 
seen, has not been a commercial land, 
and its ethical code has been that of 
the soldier. Hence commercial hon- 
esty has not been cultivated, and in 
our age the people are at a great dis- 
advantage. Already the manufacturers 
and merchants are notorious, and the 
friends of the people are kept busy 
with explanations. A thoroughgoing 
reformation, root and branch, is ne- 
cessary if the empire is to take a place 
in peace corresponding to that which 
it has won in war. The most hopeful 
sign is that the leading men are awake 
to this serious deficiency and are seek- 
ing by education to remedy it. 

273 



CbeSpititoftfteaDtient 



On the material side also the pro- 
blems are very great. Japan is poor, it 
cannot compare with a third-rate Eu- 
ropean state, yet it seeks to maintain 
itself as a first-class power. It finds 
poverty a check to its advance, for 
modern civilization is expensive. A 
Japanese could live in the United 
States as cheaply as in Japan, but he 
will not. None so lives here, and our 
poverty would be a sufficiency there. 
A man with a dollar and a half a day 
in Tokyo even would count himself 
well off*, and could live much as he 
chose. But that is because of the sim- 
plicity of life, a simplicity which gives 
way through contact with foreign 
ways. Hence there arise a new re- 
spect for wealth and a new desire for it. 
Art has been commercialized, as have 
literature and the aspirations of young 
men. But how shall these new aspira- 
tions be gratified, how shall even the 
rightful measure of added comfort be 
attained? For the vision of a regener- 
274 



3Iapan, iw Spirit anD IPtoblems 

ated Japan must include a certain ad- 
vancement in material resources. Al- 
ready the air of some of the towns is 
black with coal smoke as a partial an- 
swer, while all the natural resources 
of the empire are studied with scien- 
tific thoroughness, and the newly won 
lands beyond the seas are looked to 
as affording an outlet for the too dense 
population. 

But with these new methods come 
new problems, new to Japan but old 
to us, of strikes and child labor and 
exhausting hours for adults, of the 
distribution of profits, of the forma- 
tion of a wealthy, monopolistic group, 
of strikes and socialism and the en- 
tire list so familiar,questions which Ja- 
pan must answer as we must answer 
them, with no royal road for either. 

Allied with this is the educational 
problem. As in politics, the forms of 
the most enlightened nations are 
adopted, but the system is handi- 
capped by the use of Chinese, a form 

275 



Cfte @>pitft of tbe ©tient 



of writing which makes disproportion- 
ate demands upon the strength and 
time of the student for mastery over 
the mere mechanism of education. 
As a result the vast majority of chil- 
dren cannot study long enough to 
gain a really intelligent notion of 
the world they live in. Even less than 
our own children who end their train- 
ing with the primary school can the 
Japanese boys and girls be regard- 
ed as prepared to take an interest in 
intellectual affairs. They are poorly 
equipped even for the reading of the 
newspaper or the most ordinary lit- 
erature. Then a smaller proportion 
than with us go on to the secondary 
and high schools; while, instead of our 
great multitude in college and in uni- 
versity, only an extremely select mi- 
nority, very small in numbers, can en- 
ter the corresponding institutions. 
Here the want of wealth makes itself 
felt, stern necessity compelling the 
vast majority to forego the higher ed- 
276 



3lapan, its ©pint anD Problems 



ucation. Yet the great majority thus 
hindered is the real source of the na- 
tion's strength, and if trained it would 
add to it incalculably. Again, none is 
more alive to the situation than are 
the leading Japanese, and none clearer 
in the knowledge that it is a condition 
and not a theory, a condition which can 
be met only by long continued efforts 
for generations. 

The moral problem has already been 
indicated in part, so far as it concerns 
business. We may not discuss here 
the question of the relation of the 
sexes, but it is even more serious. A 
thoroughgoing reformation is needed 
in the domain of sexual ethics, with 
new ideals and new laws and cus- 
toms. Here is the second blot upon 
Japan's fame, and here the apologist 
has a more difficult task, as he cannot 
fall back upon the peculiarities of the 
feudal ethics. But here too there are 
indications of the coming of a better 
state of things. In Tokyo, for example, 

277 



C6e ©pitit of tfie ©tient 



a group of gentlemen of high social 
position and of correspondingly great 
influence have formed a league for 
personal purity of life; in some of the 
provinces laws have been passed a- 
gainst public prostitution, and Chris- 
tianity increasingly makes its influ- 
ence felt. 

The general moral problem is also 
serious. Beautiful as was the loyalty 
of old Japan, its defects were appar- 
ent. As already indicated, it was the 
ethics of the soldier, with his virtues 
and his vices. To a soldier all is per- 
mitted which is necessary for success, 
and "laws are silent amid arms," for 
that which would be crime in the 
peaceful citizen is applauded in the 
warrior. Hence in Japan the notion 
obtained that loyalty excused all else, 
and indeed that loyalty might require 
the commission of the most abhorrent 
deeds. Such a code emphasized for 
generations could not fail to produce 
a willingness to admit all means as 
278 



3[apan, its Spirit anD ptotilemg 

sanctified by the ends. With loyalty 
to lord or country as supreme there 
could be no "higher law" to which 
even patriotism must bend, and no 
more holy ideal which should be held 
sacred though the heavens fall. 
Such an ideal requires an ethical re- 
ligion, and in our day this is Japan's 
greatest need. It has been the ten- 
dency of the people to worship the 
wonderful and the extraordinary in 
nature and in man, miraculous power 
calling forth the feelings of adoration 
and submission. This sensitiveness to 
the wonderful has been a main source 
of the people's progress. But it must 
be supplemented by the conviction 
that the highest is found not in the 
fire or the wind or the earthquake, 
but in the still small voice, which is 
the word of God. Through the Confu- 
cian philosophy the conviction that 
righteousness is more than all success 
and more truly divine than all wonders 
was taught to the elect,— to the intel- 

279 



Cfte ©pitit of tbe ©tient 



lectual few, — but it could not be made 
effective with the masses of the people. 
A more potent religion, with its doc- 
trines of the holiness of God, of the 
righteousness of his law, and of the 
soul's accountability to him, will fur- 
nish the transforming power which 
shall complete the regeneration of the 
people. 

Finally, because our limit is reached, 
not because we are now at the end, 
the problem is how to adopt the new 
without destroying the old; how to 
adapt the new and make it the ex- 
pression of the true Japanese spirit. 
But this is beyond our province, per- 
haps beyond human province, and it 
must be left to the Japanese spirit, 
the spirit which in the past took the 
Chinese civilization and made it Japa- 
nese, and which, we believe, will take 
our modern enlightenment and trans- 
form it so that the new shall be bet- 
ter than the old, and yet, like it, unique. 



IX 

Cfte Ji3eto motID 



IX 

ci^e j^eto mom 




HE victory of Japan over 
Russia is an event of more 
than local or of Asiatic sig- 
nificance; it is a turning- 
point in the history of the world. For 
the first time in millenniums has the 
East defeated the West, and for the 
first time in centuries has an Eastern 
power contended on equal terms with 
a European empire. Not in a thousand 
years has such a spectacle been seen. 
With this victory new problems 
emerge. The sympathy of the Ameri- 
can people was with the Asiatic 
against the European, with the so- 
called "heathen" against the so-called 
"Christian;" but even during the con- 
tinuance of the conflict voices were 
heard which in warning tones an- 
nounced the arrival of the "yellow 
peril." With peace these voices are 
still heard, and we are told that the 

283 



C6e Spirit of tfie ©tient 



predominance of our civilization is 
threatened, and that the time comes 
when the Asiatic and not the Euro- 
pean will be supreme. 

Our too cursory survey of Asia, its 
people and their problems, has shown 
us how little there is in these fears. 
India is not yet aroused, and how long 
a training must it undergo before it 
can put itself upon an equality with 
the West in material things! As we 
have seen, its ablest sons do not ask 
it; they are content with the "Ultimate 
and the Absolute," leaving the world 
to more materialistic and more aggres- 
sive men. To make India a factor in 
an aggressive "yellow peril" would re- 
quire the complete reversal of its whole 
stream of tendency. 

So too with China, it cares little for 
the "Ultimate and the Absolute" and 
very much for material success, but 
it is not a conquering land. Its people 
firmly believe that "the meek shall in- 
herit the earth," and it is beyond the 
284 



Cfie iSeto motlD 



dreams of the most visionary that its 
multitudes shall set themselves in mo- 
tion for conquest beyond the moun- 
tains and the seas. For centuries de- 
fenceless states have maintained them- 
selves upon the borders of the Middle 
Kingdom,— Korea^ and Siam and 
Burmah,— but the resistless power of 
the Chinese has not been put forth 
for their overthrow, and no ambitious 
general has dreamed of universal em- 
pire. To start upon a career of con- 
quest would be to reverse the tradi- 
tions of all time, and to run counter 
to the most firmly established convic- 
tions of the people. 
Nor will Japan lightly go to war 
again, nor will it be led into ambitious 
projects of distant conquest. Its lead- 
ers are too intelligent and understand 

* The relation of China to some of its semi-dependencies is oddly 
shown by the fact that the Koreans in the past asked permission in 
vain to increase the tribute paid in Peking, desiring to render it 
more frequently. But after all there was reason in their request and 
in China's refusal, for the carrying of the tribute was made an occa- 
sion for profitable barter, the merchants who accompanied the am- 
bassador being permitted to take in their wares free of duty, and 
gaining much more than they paid. 

28s 



CfteSpirftoftfteSDrient 



too thoroughly their powers and their 
limitations. Japan's position as a mili- 
tary power is established, and it will 
not need to seek for further recogni- 
tion; its problems are those of com- 
merce and of industry and of all that 
belongs to peace. It will give itself to 
these, and will not commit the su- 
preme folly of going around the globe 
to contend with European powers in 
their own waters and upon their own 
shores. If it attempt such an enter- 
prise it will be because it is as foolish 
as the Russians; and whom the gods 
first make mad they destroy. 

But while few men seriously contem- 
plate the possibility of military ag- 
gression, more are apprehensive of a 
commercial struggle. The Chinese es- 
pecially, with their patience, industry, 
frugality and perseverance, seem for- 
midable competitors, while even the 
Japanese, notwithstanding their want 
of large experience, may prove them- 
selves formidable when they bring the 
286 



Cl)e il3eto motli} 



same scientific intelligence to bear 
upon the pursuits of peace as they have 
already on those of war. But again, 
summarily and for the moment, let us 
dismiss these idle fears. The thorough 
awakening of China is still only among 
the possibilities, and Japanese com- 
mercial aggression on a large scale 
is also of the future. But granting it 
all, China progressive, manufacturing, 
awake, Japan increasing in wealth as 
it increases in the scientific use of elec- 
tricity and of steam, does any one sup- 
pose that these empires will be less 
valuable as customers when thus rich 
than at present when poor? Does the 
merchant prefer a community which 
is poverty-stricken and bound hand 
and foot in conservatism to one which 
is alive with enterprise and rich in 
productions? Most certainly it is not 
in the continuance of present condi- 
tions that our hopes for future gain 
rest, but in the entrance of Asia upon 
the path of progress, and in its success 

287 



C6e Spirit of tfte SDtient 



in utilizing the forces of nature as it 
already employs to their limit the un- 
aided powers of man. 

If indeed our ideal is the unapproach- 
able supremacy of the white man, if 
we regard Europeans and Americans 
as predestined to rule, and if our as- 
piration is the division of China and 
the government of the earth by the 
great military powers, then the vic- 
tory of Japan is portentous. But such 
we are persuaded is not the dream 
of Americans. The arousing of Japan 
means better things and things which 
pertain unto salvation. 

In the beginning of this book we de- 
scribed the differences between East 
and West as the result of our mutual 
separation. Once, long ago, there was 
no East nor West in the modern sense, 
but all were one, with differences in de- 
grees of barbarism and of archaic ci- 
vilization. On the whole Asia preceded 
Europe in the race, and Europe en- 
tered into the fruits of the Asiatic heri- 
288 



Cfte il3eto aXHotlD 



tage, in philosophy, in science, in reli- 
gion, in art, and in most of the depart- 
ments of civilized life. Asia was teacher, 
Europe was pupil. Then came separa- 
tion, and after that hostility and a more 
complete isolation. During long cen- 
turies Asia remained unchanged, or 
slowly and steadily deteriorated. There 
seemed no inherent power capable of 
producing new life. Thought revolved 
perpetually around the same subjects; 
literature repeated the same stories, 
centred its poetry in the same themes, 
and found delight in an increasing mi- 
nuteness of style and ornament. Gov- 
ernment discovered no new system, 
and wars or revolutions simply re- 
placed one set of rulers by another. 
In neither rulers nor ruled were great 
ideals of human liberty or progress 
produced. So was it in India and in 
China and in Japan. Under varying 
conditions, with varying civilizations 
and varying developments, the same 
spirit was in all and the same results 

289 



Cbe Spirit of tfie ©tient 



were produced. Everywhere the end 
had been reached, and there seemed 
to be "no new thing under the sun." 
The spirit of Asia had exhausted it- 
self; it had no new inspirations and no 
new visions. Its thought of the uni- 
verse was of a vast living organism 
circling round and round forever; over 
all was Fate, ruling spirit and body 
alike. Suddenly upon this repose came 
the foreign invasions, an incursion of 
barbarians from the outer world. It 
was all unwelcome, for it disturbed the 
calm and excited alarm. These men 
were uncultivated and rude; they were 
aggressive. And as in the past war had 
always been because of such incur- 
sions of savages, so now violence was 
the natural accompaniment of this 
disturbance. In India the people soon 
submitted to the inevitable, and found 
that they had gained by the change 
in masters. In China the rulers put 
their heads in the sand and refused to 
look at the world around them. In 
290 



Cfte il3cto motlt} 



Japan the leaders, remembering an- 
cient examples, sought at first to com- 
prehend and then to master the mar- 
vel. They could really comprehend only 
the spirit of the West, and they un- 
derstood that this spirit is not the 
guardian of the white man, but is the 
guide of all races, impartial, beneficent, 
potent. 

What really has taken place in Eu- 
rope and America during the ages of 
separation which made the white man 
invincible when at last isolation was 
no longer possible? The answer is on 
the surface and it is as true as it is 
plain. In the Occident man has be- 
come at once scientific and free. The 
first made him master of the powers 
of nature, the second made him mas- 
ter of himself It is wonderful how few 
have been the men and how narrow 
the line by which modern civilization 
has attained its present height. A few 
great scholars discovered the method 
by which nature should be interro- 

291 



Cfte spirit of tbe aDtient 



gated, and a comparatively few men 
were born with the instinct for liberty. 
Yet all our progress rests on these two 
things. Examine for a moment more 
closely into their nature. 

Liberty in its true sense has been 
possible only where men are thought 
of as sons of God. That breaks down 
the artificial barriers which man has 
made, and gives equal opportunity for 
development. But only here and there, 
under specially favoring conditions, 
has the teaching of Christianity on this 
subject taken root and brought forth 
fruit. Yet how intimately is the wel- 
fare of humanity bound up with it! 
Progress, civilization, the higher life, 
all these come from men of genius, 
who are God*s best gifts to man. The 
great benefactors are few, and they 
come as the breath from heaven, we 
know not how or when. We do know 
that genius may be crushed, and that 
the man of highest gifts in a wrong 
environment will accomplish nothing. 
292 



Cbe iSeto anotlD 



Now, man has crushed and misshapen 
himself by tradition, by social cus- 
toms, by political organizations. He 
has made power and opportunity a 
matter of birth and privilege. Now he 
opens the door and utilizes the powers 
and the possibilities not of the select 
few but of all. In such freedom is the 
hope of the race. Evermore, the world 
over, without regard to race or land, 
exclusive privilege breeds corruption. 
It is not only that the denial of liberty 
injures the masses ; it is still more in- 
jurious to the classes, keeping them 
bound to the system as it is, check- 
ing all originality and fostering ty- 
ranny and corruption. Ultimately in 
these conditions the life of a people 
decays, and it is capable of no high 
purpose. From all this liberty delivers, 
and though it has its own perils and 
sins, it none the less is the prime con- 
dition for advancement. 
Science goes hand in hand with lib- 
erty. It knows neither 

293 



Cfte Spirit of tfte ©tiem 



"East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth," 

but is the product of all times and 
places and races who participate in 
the common life which is its source. 
Science is simply truth and the search 
after it, nothing more and nothing less. 
Modern science differs from other sci- 
ence only in method, in its attention 
to minute details, in its beUef that no- 
thing is insignificant or to be over- 
looked, in the creed that man is to 
learn from nature and not to impose 
his guesses or wishes upon it, and in 
the conviction that the truth of nature 
is better than all poetry or visions or 
dreams. Let us repeat and emphasize: 
Science is the search for truth, for the 
knowledge of things as they are, a pos- 
session which makes man master, giv- 
ing him the key which unlocks the 
treasure-house of earth and sky and 
sea. In the past man has learned in 
the hard school of experience in a hap- 
hazard way; in our day scientific me- 
294 



Cfte il3eto JaJotlD 



thod reduces instances to principles, 
and teaches in the shortest and the 
most effective manner. 

Now the victory of Japan simply in- 
dicates that it has learned these two 
principles. It gave up its old traditions 
which were guesses at truth, and its 
old forms of organization which were 
the offspring of a narrow experience, 
and it entered upon the pursuit of sci- 
ence, that is, of reality. What it has 
won has been in this fashion. It has no 
distrust of scientific theory, but it has 
asked where were the profound scho- 
lars, the best teachers, the most suc- 
cessful results. Germany, France, Great 
Britain, Russia, the United States 
were all alike to its students, the one 
question being. Where shall we find the 
truthand obtain thebestPThe outcome 
shows the merits of the method and 
makes plain the pathway to success. 

Is it possible for the other Asiatics 
also? Why not? Can they follow where 
Japan leads? Certainly, if they awake. 

295 



C&e^pitttoft&eSDtiem 



When Japan again became acquaint- 
ed with the West, as I have shown, 
it discovered that it must learn from 
us or submit to us. So it is with na- 
ture and us all; we must learn from it 
or we must suffer from it. There is no 
room for argument, nor is there any 
difference in China, India or America. 
One rule is over all and one choice 
open to all. If we learn from nature 
she gives her treasures to us; if we re- 
fuse to learn we remain weak, poor, 
miserable. 
In the presence of facts as clear as 
day it is idle to argue, and our one 
problem is. Can Asia be taught to see 
what Japan hasseen? The victoryover 
Russiagiveshigh hopes. All across the 
continent goes the thrill of a new life. 
China feels it and begins to say, "What 
Japan has done we can do." India feels 
it and there awakes a new sense of 
patriotism and a new aspiration for a 
national existence. In every little king- 
dom the news arouses a sense of pos- 
296 



Cfie iQeto aaJorlD 



sibilities. To make the situation ap- 
parent required nothing less thain a 
world conflict with a power like Rus- 
sia, whose prowess was everywhere 
known and whose name brought terror 
throughout the continent. And on the 
other hand, only Japan with its intelli- 
gence, its patriotism, its intense self- 
consciousness, its warrior training, its 
homogeneity and its spirit of devotion 
could have ventured into the breach 
and taught the lesson. 

What then can be the danger if the 
lesson be learned ? If it be not learned all 
things remain as before, with a deeper 
hopelessness and a profounder misery. 
But if it be learned it is nothing more 
than this, that man must understand 
truth and live by it. From that no dan- 
ger can arise, but from it all blessings 
and progress come. 

Such national transformation will not 
be accompUshed in our generation. 
With all its energy, Japan has only 
entered upon the right path, and its 

297 



Cfte Spirit of tftefiDrient 



good will be reaped in the dim future. 
It took three hundred years for old 
Japan to assimilate the Chinese civili- 
zation. The pace is faster now, but let 
us be content nor ask impossibilities. 
The achievement will be unprecedent- 
ed if the end of the twentieth century 
sees the tasks completed which were 
set in the nineteenth ; and with these 
completed more will be urgently call- 
ing for attention. 
India and China present situations far 
more difficult. The patriotism which 
is the motive power must be created 
andanational self-consciousness born. 
The immensely greater power of an- 
cient custom and of immemorial usage 
must be weakened, a race of leaders 
must be formed, and then, instead of 
a homogeneous people separated by 
small distances, there are continen- 
tal empires with endless varieties of 
speech and race. Slowly then through 
generations must the process go on, 
and we and our children and our grand- 
298 



Cbe Ji3eto motli} 



children shall pass away before it is 
completed; but we at least may wit- 
ness the start, and firm in hope we see 
in faith the vision afar ofT. 
The victory of Japan makes oppor- 
tunity for the East. That is all which 
men or nations may ask. America es- 
tablishes a Monroe Doctrine, saying 
to European aggressors, "Hands off." 
Japan establishes its doctrine of like 
import, "Asia for Asiatics." This too 
is of prime importance for the world. 
Had Russia won, Manchuria would not 
have satisfied its greed, and with its at- 
tack on China the other powers would 
have claimed their share. The last 
great independent empire would have 
lost its freedom, and a few great mili- 
tary powers would have divided the 
earth. Such a thought suggests end- 
less visions of disaster, a real "white 
peril," for Europe as for Asia. How 
could so great a spoil have been di- 
vided? What opportunity for strife as 
the birds of prey descended upon so 

299 



Clje ©pittt of tfte ©tient 



vast a carcass! What possibilities of 
evil for the conquerors as for the con- 
quered! Besides, what European na- 
tion has such store of capable and 
honest men that it can spare enough 
to govern an empire in the Far East? 
England only has succeeded in part, 
and India taxes its resources; while 
German and French experiments do 
not lead us to wish their extension, 
and our own efforts in the Philippines 
are not yet such as to warrant boast- 
ing. China, too, is the hardest of na- 
tions for foreigners to govern, unless 
they drop their strange ways, adopt 
the native customs and ideals, and 
become Chinese. Japan has freed Eu- 
rope from its greatest danger and from 
responsibility to which it is unequal, 
and it merits our thanks as it main- 
tains "Asia for Asiatics." 
For the Chinese themselves the de- 
liverance is great. What conquered 
people has ever produced that which 
is great? And China is still virile, with 
300 



Cfte jfQeto saiorlD 



its strength unexhausted and its pow- 
ers scarcely yet in their fulness. It has 
had its proportion of distinguished 
sons of genius, and why should not the 
ages to come show their equals, men 
who shall rival the greatest of the past 
and make contributions not only to 
China but to the world? 

Let us review our great subject. The 
Spirit of Asia, nourished by its environ- 
ment and coming to an early self-con- 
sciousness, soon stopped in its devel- 
opment. Its great mission was accom- 
plished in the remote past, only Japan 
being a nation born out of due time. 
But with its early maturity it ex- 
hausted itself, in part because of the 
influence of adverse physical condi- 
tions (India), in part because of im- 
memorial isolation (China). Without 
new impulses it had no further gifts to 
bestow upon man, but was in part con- 
tent with its attainment, in part dis- 
couraged in the pursuit of happiness. 
For the future it had no great outlook, 

301 



Ct)eS)pitttoftfte©rient 



but stagnated, its highest thinkers lost 
in the search for the ** Ultimate and 
the Absolute," its greatest statesmen 
and generals satisfied with the achieve- 
ment of personal power and the indul- 
gence of luxury. For long periods the 
people continued unchanged, or deteri- 
orated to less satisfactory conditions. 
To them there came no great visions 
but only now and then revolt against 
the evil administration of systems 
which seemed identical with the laws 
of the universe. Neither intellectually 
nor religiously nor morally nor materi- 
ally were there movements which pro- 
mised better things. No new religion 
arose, though Asia has been the cradle 
of all great religions, nor scientifically 
was there any advance as scholasti- 
cism riveted its scheme more and more 
securely upon the intellectual world. 
Then came the modern era, when the 
West, vigorous to the point of insolent 
aggression, ambitious with dreams of 
a world conquest, scientific in its mas- 
302 



Cfie ii3eto 9:^orID 



tery of nature, and religious with its 
ideals of the Fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of man, came in con- 
tact with it. At first the touch was 
paralyzing and Asia seemed doomed 
to conquest. But already in India there 
were evidences of renewed intellectual 
life and the dawn of a better day in 
religion and in intelligence. China, ob- 
tuse, self-satisfied and repellent, would 
not learn its lesson, but tried to live 
within its walls, through which none 
the less the forces of modern civili- 
zation were making breaches. Finally 
in these last years Japan arose and 
showed the better way. 
The great problem now emerges: Is 
the Spirit of Asia capable of assimi- 
lating the Spirit of Europe? As we 
pointed out, Japan makes the attempt. 
Confident in itself, it believes that it 
can combine the best of both and pro- 
duce a new civilization better than any 
the world has known. It is a great ef- 
fort, with endless difficulties in the way, 

303 



Cfte S^pitit of tbe ©mm 



and yet upon its success depends the 
future of the larger part of humanity. 
It is not to be hoped that Japan, still 
less Asia, will be Europeanized. It 
would be a sorry outcome were the 
empires of the East to be mere copies 
of the empires of the West. The ideal 
is not a dull identity but a true diver- 
sity. When one has crossed the Amer- 
ican continent he has had enough of 
the sameness, enough of the hotels 
and cities and houses built on the 
same plan, enough of conversation in 
the same tones and on the same top- 
ics, enough of a life which is actuated 
by like impulses and characterized 
by like equalities. However good it is, 
one craves a change and can sympa- 
thize with those who, weary of it, re- 
gret the new movements which intro- 
duce modern methods and ways in 
the East. But Japan again is our 
guide. As we have pointed out suf- 
ficiently, its early civilization was Chi- 
nese but the completed result unique. 
304 



Cfie iQeto aaJotlD 



As has been said, it first adopted, then 
adapted, and finally improved. It was 
too distinctive and too virile merely 
to copy. So is it with ourselves. What 
diverse elements have entered into 
our civilization! what great debts do 
we owe to all kinds and conditions 
of men ! And yet the result is our own, 
so that we are already widely differ- 
entiated from our nearest neighbors 
across the seas. So must it be when 
great nations receive gifts and teach- 
ing from others. It is a sign of self- 
confidence thatthe Japanese are ready 
to borrow without fear and to follow 
foreign guidance implicitly. They know 
that their national genius will assert 
itself and that the final outcome will 
be unmistakably their own. So shall 
it be with India and with China: learn 
they must, but modify, adapt, and in 
their own way improve they will. 
Thus we shall see a new world, with 
a civilization vastly superior to any 
history has known. It will be one in 

305 



Cf)e©prtitoft6effl)tient 



its acceptance of science, the princi- 
ples which all must acknowledge, but 
different in the specific application of 
the truth, for the clothing of the life 
will differ with differing races and en- 
vironments. Thus the new will be bet- 
ter than the old because based on a 
fuller knowledge of truth, and as di- 
versified as the old because human 
nature in varying circumstances will 
variously assert itself. 

To such end the various great move- 
ments contribute. There was the dan- 
ger that the West would be untrue 
to the principles of the religion it pro- 
fesses and attempt by brute force to 
compel compliance with its ambitious 
will. But that dream is dispelled. We 
must now depend upon other means. 
Conquer the East by arms we cannot; 
we must depend upon truth, in science, 
in religion and in commerce. Compel 
obedience we cannot ; win agreement 
we must by the force of sympathy. 

With this outlook we must conclude 
306 



Cfte il3eto moxlD 



by asking what gifts the Spirit of the 
East has to bestow upon the West. 
We are already its debtors, but it has 
more to give. We widen our view of 
the world as we learn that we are 
not **the people," but that God has an 
equal care for the multitudes in Asia, 
and that they have their rights, their 
dignity, and their claims upon respect 
and reverence. But beyond this the 
East may teach us lessons of which we 
stand in need. The material and phy- 
sical elements of our civilization are 
too prominent beyond all question. 
Our life is burdensome and compli- 
cated. We are intent upon the means 
of life, and not sufficiently interested 
in life itself We are absorbed in the 
concrete, the external, the particular, 
and not reverent of reflection, medi- 
tation and patience. We are individ- 
ualistic and personal, too certain of 
ourselves, too mindful of our position 
in the organism. The East may cor- 
rect these errors and teach us that 

307 



Cfte %pixit of tbe ©tient 



our life is not in the abundance of the 
things which we possess. 

In the East the organism is supreme ; 
in the West the individual. The Spirit 
of the East there had finished its 
course, but coming to us it may lead 
us away from our absorption in the 
things of sense and introduce new 
elements into life and thought; and 
we shall teach the East the value of 
personality, and the world shall be the 
dwelling-place of the children of God. 
From this union of East and West 
shall come the higher and better hu- 
manity and the new world in which 
abide peace and truth. 



Cfte OEnD 



'Bibliogtapftg 



'Biblfograpl^l? 



India 

, Asiatic Studies, Lyall, 2 vols., London, 1899. 
The Indian Village Community, B. H. Baden-Powell 
A Brief History of the Indian People, W. W. Hunter. 
New India Cotton. (Trubner & Company.) 
Indian Life in Town and Country, H. E. Compton. 
Hinduism, M. Williams. (Society for the Promotion of Chris- 
tian Knowledge, London.) 
Buddhism, T. W. R. Davids. (Society for the Promotion of 
Christian Knowledge, London.) 

China 

The Middle Kingdom, 2 vols., S. W. Williams. (The au- 
thoritative work on the empire, its geography, history, 
literature, religion, government, &c.) 

Chinese Characteristics, A. H. Smith. (An exceedingly acute 
and brilliant study of people, somewhat too severe in its 
judgments.) 

China in Convulsion, A. H. Smith. (The best study of the 
Boxer troubles and the siege of Peking.) 

Village Life in China, A. H. Smith. 

The Religions of China, J. Legge. (Scribner.) 

Buddhism in China, S. Beall. (From the excellent series of 
small handbooks published by the Society for the Pro- 
motion of Christian Knowledge, London. Brief and au- 
thoritative.) 

Confucianism, R. K. Douglass. (From the excellent series 
of small handbooks published by the Society for the Pro- 
motion of Christian Knowledge, London. Brief and au- 
thoritative.) 

Chinese Life in Town and Country. (Putnams.) 

311 



TBililiograpte 



Japan 

The Mikado's Empire, W. E. Griffis. (Harpers.) Ninth Edi- 
tion. (A good popular account of the mythology, history 
and customs.) 

Things Japanese, B. H. Chamberlain. (The best summary, 
with a brief paragraph upon all topics of interest by the 
man who is the highest authority.) 

Japanese Girls and Women, A. M. Bacon. (By far the best 
account of its topic, though rose-colored.) 

Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Isabella Bird Bishop. (Though 
written more than twenty years ago this remains the best 
book by a traveller.) 

Tales of Old Japan, A. B. F. Mitford. (A delightful account 
of the old Japan which passed away with the coming of 
foreigners.) 

The Gist of Japan, R. B. Peery. (A brief and interesting ac- 
count of the people as they appear to a missionary.) 

Japan : An Interpretation, L. Hearn. (Japan as it appears 
to a man of highly artistic temperament.) 

The Evolution of the Japanese, S. L. Gulick. (Full of inter- 
esting and acute observation.) 

Japanese Life in Town and Country, G. W. Knox. 



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